My Practice is concerned with the fragile relationship, which exists between the Exterior and the Interior Self. My work explores issue arising around the dilemmas that this relationship presents. Especially as we inhabit a society which in the last decade has become obsessed and so concerned with the Exterior, how one looks, how one presents them selves and in opposition to this the search for the true Self, the interior Self, the emotional Self. The Self that has become lost.
The constant theme in my work is that of fragility and loss, brought about by having to compromise our identity. This can result in illness, an escape to a life embroidered by fantasy and an acceptance of denial.
The Blood-Lettings is series of works, which explores these themes. Inasense explores the issue of how we are concerned with washing away our natural body odour and replacing them with chemical smells. This can be viewed as a cultural dilemma uncovering a multitude of expected behaviour. I decided to create a perfume using my blood. Going into my body I extracted the blood, preserved it in beautiful glass bottles and proceeded to wear it as my scent.
The Death of the Non Blonde-Blonde Part 1 and 2 — I had a compulsion to be blonde, so for six months, I changed my hair: it went from chestnut brown to blonde. During this time I kept a record of how people relate to blondes. The project ended with two performances. The Death of the Non Blonde-Blonde Part 1: a Cele-bration, was a re-creation of the famous fountain scene from La Dolce Vita, performed at Trafalgar Square in London. This embodied the fantasy of the blonde. Part 2: Death was performed in a barbers shop in Deptford London two days later. Members of the public came and cut the blonde curls from my head. This showed a sinister side to the cult of the blonde.
In the piece Movie Premier the spectator is asked to bear witness to the Movie Star. On the surface she appears glamorous, confident and a true celebrity, however underneath there lies a confusion, fragility and loss, the Movie Star can no longer distinguish the boun-daries between her life on celluloid and her day to day existence. She has become the celebrity that those around her have created.
My work is realised through the media of performance and film. Film work has become an integral part of my practice in recent years, especially the use of 8mm. I have specifically selected this media to complement the live element. 8 mm as a media enhances and highlights the issues I explore. Its quality has a fragility within it, which can draw the viewer into feeling nostalgia, a fragment of memory, something lost regained for a moment, which in turn will provoke emotional responses. The use of film within live art practice has opened up a very exciting way of working for me as an artist, it has enabled the work to develop and allow a strong relationship between the real and fabricated to emerge.