I work with phonetic text, installation and sculpture.
My concerns are around the roles and responsibilities individuals have within a group, the low status that some have in that group… aka society, and the violence we do to each other.
It is via the uniform that I deal with the concept of the Nobody.
The Uniform is a visual sign of distinction, a difference causing a diffidence, a deference, or a defiance but not all uniforms…
An apron, a lanyard, a polyester shirt with embroidered logo, a hairnet, a pinny, hospital clogs, a high-vis vest, … A synthetic surface, 100% viscose, strong and versatile, highly flexible and pliable, great ease of manipulation, man-made for manual work, cheap and non-recyclable, to be replaced regularly.
Tokens of low status, these are the uniforms that interest me because of those that wear them, those at the bottom of the pyramid, those that have no choice… the nobodies.
It’s a question of power imbalance, what corporate structure does to a body and the violence we do to each other. The work speaks subtly of complicated issues about agency, status, marginalisation, emotion, and humanity.
The ambition is for the uniform to convey a humanity on its surface, on its fabric via the corporal frame, the postures that can trigger an ‘emotional contagion’ in the viewer. And to give a poetic form for the nobodies.