I am a visual artist with a background in design, film and animation. I studied graphic design at Wolverhampton Polytechnic and animation at the RCA.
I am a visual artist with a background in design, film and animation. I studied graphic design at Wolverhampton Polytechnic and animation at the RCA.
My work often explores the evidence and histories of place, and the stories and retellings that make a place known. I work with moving image, text, drawing, and installation.
My artist’s films have shown internationally: Cabinet (2006, Flamin/ACE) won second prize at transmediale.07 (Berlin); Burlesque (2008, Capture5) featured in ReelDance Australia and EMAF Osnabrück touring programmes; Fits and Starts of Restlessness (2012, Film London/ACE) premiered at Dickens2012, BFI Southbank, London.
I’ve made: site-specific film commissions (Blindspot for National Trust/New Expressions 3); exhibited drawings (Finding Lines exhibition, Derby Museum and Art Gallery); and my hand-drawn artist’s book, Exercise Book, was selected for the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize (2018) and acquired for the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
From 2016 to 2018 I took part in Document, a CVAN East Midlands project that documented the lives and creative practice of six East Midlands artists.
Following a stroke in 2017, I was inspired by how Derbyshire artist Ian Breakwell made writing - diarising, cataloguing and indexing the material of his life - central to his practice. Walking, looking and note making are now integral to my work, and I primarily focus on making artists’ books, that explore history, identity and place.
Middle Bound (2018) a group exhibition for QUAD, Derby set out to ‘explore the social fabric at the Heart of England’ was where I first started to explore my Romany gypsy heritage, and this continued with Keep your distance (2018) for CVAN East Midland’s On Being an Artist exhibition (2018) at Artcore, Derby, and Tasseography (2019) for Rituals and Rites (2019), also at Artcore. Derby Mean Time, an installation about Derby and its scientific legacy, featured my artist’s book Lacuna, was ACE GFTA supported and exhibited at Derby Museums in 2019/20.
Gallery and site specific exhibitions
2019 Derby Mean Time, Pickfords House, Derby Museums, Derby
2018 Rituals and Rites, Artcore, Derby
2018 On Being an Artist, CVAN East Midlands, Artcore, Derby
2018 Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2018, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London [and touring]
2018 Frankenstein 2018, Liverpool Book Arts, Central Libary, Liverpool [and touring]
2018 Middle Bound, QUAD, Derby
2017 Finding Lines, Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby
2016 D-Lab at the Wirksworth Festival, Wirksworth Festival, Derbyshire
2016 Thirteen (D-LAB) Wirksworth Festival 2016
2015 BlindSpot (New Expressions 3), The Workshouse Southwell, National Trust
2015 Sheffield International Artist Book Prize
2015 PAGES Leeds International Artists’ Book Fair, The Tetley, Leeds
2014 From Here & There: Drawings from Colorado and Wales, Clara Hatton Gallery Colorado State University, USA and Elysium Gallery, Swansea, Wales
2014 Derwent Pulse, Darley Abbey Mills, Derby
2014 Museums at Night, Strutt’s North Mill, Belper
2014 The Most Beautiful Things Cannot Be Seen, South Square, Bradford
2013 #SEENINTHDEEN, Peackcock Visual Arts, Aberdeen
2013 art:language:location, Cambridge
2013 Event Horizon, QUAD, Derby, Derbyshire
2013 Wirksworth Festival, Wirksworth, Derbyshire
2013 Belper Arts Trail, Belper, Derbyshire
2013 Towser Zine Archive, Hebden Bridge Arts Fesitval, West Yorkshire
2012 Holmfirth Arts Festival, West Yorkshire
2011 Situation Critical, Wirksworth Festival, Derbyshire
2011 Th’Owd Towser Show, Holmfirth Festival
2010 AND Festival, Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster University, UK
2009 Everyday Discrepancies, Art Gallery of Victoria, Canada
2008 Closer, Wolstenholme Projects, Liverpool, UK
2007 MultiChannel, ArtSway, Sway, UK
2007 Darbyshire Award, Site07, Stroud Valleys Artspaces, UK
2006 Mostyn Open, Oriel Mostyn Gallery, Llandudno, Wales
Screenings and touring programmes
2010 ReelDance International Dance on Screen Touring Programme 2010, Sydney
2009 Social Arts, EMAF Touring Programme 2009/2010
2009 Cream, International Festival for Arts and Media, Yokohama, Japan
2008 War and Peace 2008, Stroud Valleys Artspace, Stroud UK
2008 Nouvelle Creation Anglaise, Centre pour l’image contemporaine, Geneva
2007 War and Peace, Touring programme, Site07, Stroud Valleys Artspaces, UK
2007 transmediale.07 Video Selection, Touring Programme, Transmediale, Berlin
2006 Smoke and Mirrors, mac, Birmingham, UK
2006 Impakt Festival, Centraal Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands
2005 Textures of Reality, National Film Theatre, London, UK
Selected Festival
2009 Abandon Normal Devices (AND) FACT, Liverpool, UK
2009 Bandits-Mages Festival, Bourges, France
2009 EMAF European Media Art Festival, Osnabrueck
2008 Alternative Film and Video, Belgrade, Serbia
2008 Antimatter Underground Film Festival, Victoria, BC, Canada
2008 Ann Arbor Film Festival, Michigan, USA
2008 Bangkok Experimental Film Festival, Bangkok, Thailand
2007 Recontres Internationale Paris/Berlin/Madrid
2007 Signes de Nuit Festival, Paris, France (Thomas Munz Presentation)
2007 Amsterdam Film Experience, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2007 Aurora, Norwich, UK
2007 ICE, Iowa City Experimental International Film Festival, Iowa, USA
2007 Scanners, New York Film Festival, Lincoln Centre, New York, USA
2007 Courtisane, Gent, Belgium
2007 Media City, Windsor, Ontario, Canada
2007 transmediale, Berlin, Germany
2006 Rotterdam International Film Festival, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2003 Commonwealth Film Festival, Manchester, UK
2003 EMAF European Media Art Festival, Osnabruck, Germany
2003 Los Angeles International Film Festival, Los Angeles, USA
2003 Images Festival of Independent Film and Video, Canada
2003 Odense International Film Festival, Odense, Denmark
2002 Edinburgh International Film Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland
2002 L’Alternativa IX Barcelona Independent Film Festival, Spain
Award
2016 Document, Contemporary Visual Arts Network East Midlands
2015 D-Lab Commission, D-Lab Digital Arts in Derbyshire
2014 New Opportunities Award, New Expressions & Contemporary Visual Arts Network
2012 Film London Dickens 2012 Short Production Fund
2007 Capture5 Award
2004 Wellcome Trust Sciart Experiment Award
2004 LAFVA London Artists’ Film and Video Award
2003 Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial Trust Award
2002 S4C Channel 4 Wales ‘Short Shorts’ Award
Prize
2007 transmediale.07 Award (2nd prize for Cabinet)
2006 Alternative Film and Video Festival (Significant Achievement Award for Cabinet)
Jury
2010 Koestler Trust Awards, animation judge (to 2014)
2007 Alternative Film and Video Festival Jury member
Distribution
British Council, London, UK (Fits and Starts of Restlessness)
Microcinema International, San Francisco, USA (Rosabelle Believe)
LUX, London, UK (Cabinet)
Royal College of Art, London, UK (Rosabelle Believe)
Education
2007 PG Cert Teaching and Learning in Art, Design and Communication, UAL
2002 MA Animation, Royal College of Art
1984 BA Hons Graphic Design, Wolverhampton Polytechnic
Employment
2014 Lecturer in Design, BA Hons Graphic Design, University of Derby
2013 Senior Lecturer Visual Communication, University of Derby
2004 Head of Animation, London College of Communication, UAL
