scents
of our
time
Scents of Our Time takes the craft of candle making and applies it to politically engaged contemporary art. It sees the making of candles in direct response to the local, national and international news headlines of the day. Scents of our Time aims to reveal the capacity candles have for social comment and responsive creative action, highlighting how candles can provide empowerment, agency and contemplation.
Each candle is created using an established method of interpretation and investigation relevant to the news item I am responding to. The candles are then be placed on display ready for an audience to interact with, usually in the guise of a contemporary exhibition or residency. Visual embellishments are also included in a manner that apes contemporary news graphics.
By utilising candle making this way,I aim to reveal an alternative means of considering scented candles that confounds our preconceptions and place candles as a viable art form. I also aim to reveal how the contemplative and inherently slow nature of candle making delivers an alternative, intimate way of absorbing and contemplating news and current affairs.
Events and exhibitions
July 2018 // Access Space, Sheffield
August 2018 // Mugen Tea House, Sheffield
speculative studios
A Speculative Studio Space is a fabricated artists’ working environment which takes an artists exhibition piece, questions how the artist arrived at the idea, then assembles a space that assumes the role of their studio
.
Speculative Studios provide an insight to how the processes that exist within a studio space highlights a facet of an artists’ identity. This can generally be controlled intuitively by the artist and therefore, the artist can construct how they wish to be perceived by an audience. However, Speculative Studios questions what happens to these processes when the artist no longer has control of them. This element of disruption leaves the artist vulnerable and highlights notions of identity, authorship and ownership.
Speculative Studios takes the form of an exhibition and as such, instigates a dialogue between what can be considered an exhibition and what can be considered an artists studio space. I am interested in seizing control of an artists’ creative process in order to provide an insight into how identity can be constructed. Speculative Studios can also be seen as a visual critique of artists’ creative processes. Such a notion explores how highly personal and private spaces can act as a mirror – reflecting processes back to the artist for them to contemplate, analyse and evaluate – when exposed to subjection.
events and exhibitions
November 2014 // Exchange Place Studios, Sheffield
September – October 2015 // Access Space, Sheffield
May – September 2016 // Huddersfield Media Centre
June 2016 // BasementArtsProject, Leeds
oracles
Oracles is a collective of 6 artists living in the North of England, each with an interest in representing religion, history and medicine through their individual practices. Oracles stage exhibitions together in a range of spaces throughout the UK.
exhibitions and events
November 2017 // 'Measured' // Sheffield Cathedral
June 2018 // 'Measured' // Holy Trinity Church, Wentworth Woodhouse
May 2019 // 'And Forgive Us Our Trespasses' // Halifax Minster