& others
Two by Two Twice
2015 - 2016
This studio project aimed to utilise and consolidate scrap wood left over from the HUE sculptures, alongside other leftover materials. These objects were progressively reconfigured and photographed, before being cut down again and again to form new sculptures until all that remained was the project documentation.
Beginning in 2015, this project continued into early 2016 as a means of recycling and regenerating existing materials before the artist relocated from Oxford, UK to Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Hue
2015
In this artwork, four sculptures explored the ‘shape’ of colour using the RGB colour model - three coordinates which describe colour based on the three light-responsive ‘cones’ in the human eye. Starting at 000, 000, 000 (an absence of light and therefore deepest black), the first coordinate increases the redness of a hue, the second increases greenness, the latter blueness. At 256, 256, 256 each coordinate reaches its maximum, peaking with brilliant white as the amalgamation of all colour light. Taking RGB coordinates as their dimensions, these works illustrated the three primary colours that make up all others, while one white 256 cm cube encapsulated them all.
This project was part of the HUE group exhibition at the Old Fire Station, Oxford, 2015
Photography by Hannah Wilmshurst
Axis
2014
Exploring the relationship between architectural volume and sculptural space, this project saw two new works physically delineated the Gallery at the Old Fire Station. One MDF ‘x axis’ divided the floor space in two, while a monolithic plywood ‘y axis’, measuring the height of the gallery, acted as an anomalous plinth, an incongruous architectural pillar and a totemic industrial sculpture. The result was a volume of architectural space graphically redefined by sculptures that responded to the space around them through their simplicity of form and material.
This project was part of the AXIS solo exhibition at the Old Fire Station, Oxford, 2014
BIPM
2013
This artwork explored the unlikely fallibility of some of the supposedly unimpeachable scientific standards on which we build our lives. One second, for example, grew longer in 1977, and a metre in 1960 was a different length by 1983. This sculpture, a north-facing sundial-shaped stack of recycled timber, is a physical manifestation of this juxtaposition between precision and imperfection. The sculpture is modelled on the thirty degrees travelled by the hour hand of a clock over sixty minutes, but the warped and fractured timber subverts any physical precision.
This artwork was part of the One Hour group exhibition organised by A Place in Time and supported using public funding by Arts Council England, 2013
Aperture
2013
In this artwork, six stark white monoliths, planted in flowerbeds, amongst shrubbery and on lawns, were created to highlight and frame specific spaces around a public garden in Summertown, Oxford. Each monolith was pierced by a viewing aperture, encouraging visitors to look through, rather than at, the artwork. This project continues the theme of sculptural space, and how voids are as determinate in our readings of an artwork as physical material.
This project was part of the Aperture solo exhibition at the Turrill Sculpture Garden, Oxford, 2013
Proposed Additions
2013
These site-specific sculptures map out a series of utilitarian additions once proposed in architectural drawings for the building now occupied by OVADA gallery. Originally housing the Oxford hide and skin market, the building is one entrenched in cycles of endings and beginnings, retaining some of the scars of its use over the last 90 years, while some adaptations have long since disappeared. For Proposed Additions, two new half-walls in whitewashed plywood mark the precise locations of full walls proposed in the architect's original drawings. Against one is a low trough and a nearby flat square of cast snowcrete, both marking the proposed locations for a urinal and a lavatory respectively. Time takes away a lot of things as progress ebbs forwards, but certain additions will always be necessary.
Imperfection Perfected
2012
This project was borne out of a desire for objective perfection. Looking at objective mathematic perfection (that of geometry) and its manifestation in sculpture, my research included the drawings and equations of Euclid, and their relevance to the ancient Greek premise of aesthetic perfection. These shapes were then cast in concrete, a material that speaks of simplicity and clean lines but also of weighty brutality and sculptural prominence. Placed atop neatly mitred plywood plinths, this sculptural series resonated with its origins in mathematic perfection, while also echoing the processes and flaws of sculptural casting. The conclusion was a work that used its flaws to depict accuracy, and in doing so created a very perfect illustration of imperfection.
This artwork was part of the Playground on Fire group exhibition organised by Playground, Oxford, 2013; the Platform group exhibition at Modern Art Oxford, 2012; the Oxford Tonic group exhibition at the Old Truman Brewery, London, 2012 and 42 Degrees group exhibition at Oxford Brookes University, 2012
Two Metre Cube
2011
Following on from a series of 25cm wooden cubes, this hollow two metre cube was the conclusion of a one-year project exploring the boundaries of sculptural space using only recycled materials. Built entirely out of palette wood, it was fabricated as six flat-pack sides and assembled using the nails removed from the dismantled palettes. The ruptured knot holes and gaps between each contorted plank allow voyeuristic views of the void encapsulated inside, belying its history and construction. This project was a collaboration with Holly Kimberley Cooper.
