Area of Research Expertise

My current practice engages with all aspects of public art, through teaching, conferencing, commissioning and publishing.

Research Profile

I am currently chair of Canterbury cultural Olympiad, this regional committee brings together Canterbury city council, Kent county council and other universities in the region, Canterbury Cathedral and English heritage, the committee is planning and co-ordinating arts and cultural events between 2008 to 2012 in the build up to the Olympic Games. Canterbury district will play a key role in the events of the games perhaps by hosting international teams or visitors, the intention is to plan a series of events which bring together stakeholders in the region to make cultural events and exhibitions. As part of my role as research fellow for PARC Public art research centre I have engaged students from different schools in  'live projects', for example, our students are currently engaged in 'Canterbury futures' Canterbury city council are looking forward 25 years and visualising how the city will look and develop with all of its different communities,  a conference will be held at UKC which brings together all regional stakeholders, our students are working closely with the design team are designing all the visualisations and computer imagery for the conference. I am also co-ordinating with Kent county council to make a formal agreement between UCA and KCC, this will create a platform for all activities between our organisations and it will also create employment for our graduates who will be offered work within the community arts programs in the region following the formalising of the arrangements this academic year.

I recently completed commissions for Crossways business park Thames gateway, the commissioners required two large scale sculptures for the business park to act as signatures to enable the travelling public to orientate themselves around the area, they requested that I use the wildlife of the area as the subject matter and I developed 'Fish' and 'Swan' two 5m tall sculptures which are now placed on roundabouts adjacent to the Queen Elizabeth bridge.

My research has always centred itself on issues to do with the environment, my practice deals primarily with an intervention into a particular space sometimes with permanent works and other times with less permanent or ephemeral works. The works I make are usually sculpture and engage with different audiences and communities.  All my ideas and issues are posited on a duchampian tradition and function on the basis of particular subject and through materiality the use of the readymade object and a context for the work. This can be seen in 'Mother Elephant' a work I first conceived during the 1980's following a news at 10 TV programme, which featured African elephants being slaughtered for their tusks, my reaction to this was to make a work using the TV as a medium and I sculpted a life size mother Elephant as though charging and defending her calf, I used the detritus of our lives, TV's ornaments, Hoovers, telephones shoes jewellery and other bric a brac, every object having already had a lifetime of sentimental or functional value to someone somewhere, it is this notion of value that is at the heart of my practice, everyone has their own values for their worldly goods, and through my work I am asking the audience to question what are we doing with the earth and all the natural objects it holds.  I was recently invited by the Australian curator, David Handley, to make the work for 'sculpture by the sea' an annual international sculpture exhibition along the Australian coastline, this I completed using the detritus of Sydney suburbs, the work received international acclaim across four continents through features in national and international press and TV coverage.

When  I made 'Car' I wanted to take an ordinary everyday car which symbolises a basic social and economic need, in a culture where relationships are dependent on it. At first sight it is divorced from aesthetics, from overt social symbolism or status. It has only utilitarian value. Time presides over the inexorable and stealthy process of its depreciation and decent into worthlessness. I made the car from re-cycled paper; the notion of the standardised aesthetic of mass production is subverted through the unique quality of the paper, which has a life span of Chinese parchment over 5000 years. I exhibited the work at Cubitt Gallery London and was featured in The Guardian newspaper. I visualised making a 20C icon an object which has universal meaning in that it fought Fascism and represents freedom I wanted to create a peace dove, I then made 'spitfire' by taking a cast from a working aeroplane and casting the work into high quality paper. The work was recently featured in a major retrospective of my work at Hartlepool Museum of contemporary art, where it received national coverage by the BBC and The Times newspapers.