Our lives are lived in tunnels that are not of our own making but have been formed for us by how space has been organised by others. City space is organised by businesses, architects and urban planners. Movement is directed along these routes and particular activities are prioritised. Human nature rejects such confinement. Desire paths are carved from this impulse. Public space should be more than just an afterthought. Random elements stumbled upon can trigger surprise and joy. Familiar objects seen anew can offer contentment or provoke concern.
My line of enquiry often begins with a walk in and around the city, unremarkable in my daily routine. I snapshot activities, urban city forms and spatial arrangements. I stumble upon the goings on in city living. Cities are built on past lives as the landscape reveals. Excavations behind the many hoardings expose what came before. Loosely visualising materials and their qualities, I use drawing to document points of curiosity. Ideas are expanded upon and sharpened in the studio and the making processes. This often directs me back to a particular site.
Accessibility and inaccessibility, stability and instability, power and fragility are recurring concerns in the work I do. I develop multiple lines of enquiry – building and rebuilding, combining and unravelling. In my recent studio work – and now at home since the lockdown – I have chosen urban forms and materials that reference changing environmental conditions. The work responds to challenges that the urban landscape faces and the musings it induces.