Safe as houses 1: Sitting in my installation

Im sitting - in my shorts - in my installation. Theres a prisoner in Guantanamo orange ranting on her phone, a coffin with the corpse shown rotting on the side, and a vulnerable naked woman lying on the sofa. Theres lots more not visible here.

I was shielded during the lockdown and made an installation in the only place I could go – my front room – with the only material I had – recycled packaging. It’s too large to show all of it in one photograph. Please take note of the coffin – after an old friend pf mine …

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Making things with William

Will as the classiest blacksmith you've ever seen

William Hutt was a master craftsman and a creative whirlwind. Armourer for the Wallace Collection and the Royal Armouries. Leather worker extraordinaire. The earliest adopter of Photoshop I knew Will taught me the rudiments of how to sculpt metal by hitting it very skilfully.He improved my chain-mail making-technique. And he helped me make my first knife. Look … …

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Lemon and lime trees: Citrus limon

(Un)forgotten flora is goign to be an online exhibition curated by Francis Annagu in a “Creativity from HOME” experimental residency curated by Co-iki. We were asked for ‘strange flowers’ we wanted to focus on I chose the lemon: Citrus limon and the Persian oak Aas part of my installation Safe as Houses, I made a …

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The Persian Oak: Quercus brantii

Heres my 5 minute video on Quercus brantii – the West Asian oak, the Persian oak, the Zagros oak: I’ve done something more creative with the English oak: Quercus rubor – starting from an acorn germinating with my tears when my father took his last breath. The acorn developed to be grafted onto mosaic trees …

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Third Wave

part of the Hokusai wave - with multicultural heads to show the black, brown and white people caught up and destroyed in the pandemic

I won a special award for COVID-19 Critique from Bertha Dochouse. And was Runner up for the 3rd edition of their Creative Response to Self-Isolation competition: New Reveries: The Power of Archive Now. This was about delving into the archive. Third Wave includes some archive from the 1918 pandemic – and also shows some of …

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The THIRD WAVE: references

This 6 minute film explores inequalities in the Covid-19 pandemic – including my own shielding, BAME inequalities, and the slaughter in care homes. I’ve included some archive from the 1918 pandemic, created some specific new art, and included a few elements from the archive I have created of my own shielding. There’s more of the …

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Magnificent Multimorbidity

Magnificent Multimorbidity shows two female figures on a mustard yellow ground.These naked figures show my multiple morbidities.  Their nakedness illustrates how vulnerable I can be with my multimorbidity. And also shows that I am more than a set of diagnoses: I am a human being and a woman. Both of the figures are a collage …

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Sprezzaturra

William Hutt epitomised the very best sort of sprezzaturra. It’s a concept from Castigloone’s 1528 Book of the Courtier, just in case you don’t immediately know what I’m talking about. William; had, of course, more-than-mastery of arms. He had enormous physical strength. And his dainty dancing was always an absolute joy to behold. Since Will was ...

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A Siberian post mortem

Nurse gives meds to prisoner behind bars in TB prison. The open mouth is to check the meds were swallowed. Image: Nachtwey. https://prisonphotography.org/tag/tuberculosis/
“Do you work in Humanitarian Aid?” the man asked.I’d just finished my weekly swim and was waiting for my hair to dry. After all, when it’s minus 29ºCentigrade, you don't go outside with a wet head, even if you have got a cosy Russian fur hat.Yes,” I answered. He was staring at me. “Do you ...

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