You Before Me
2022 - 2023
You Before Me (woodcut series), woodcut prints on Thai Grass and Okashi papers, 90 x 260 cm, edition of 6. Installed as part of RCA2023 at the Royal College of Art, Battersea.
How do I imagine - and come to terms with - the life my partner led before he met me?
Are the stories we tell ourselves closer to reality than we care to hope? Or are they so fictional they are laughable? What do our assumptions, our fears and our hopes reveal to us? Why do certain scenes torment us? Does everyone ask these questions?
You Before Me (intaglio series), spit bite and sugar lift prints on Fabriano paper, 65 x 235 cm, unique edition.
In my most recent body of work - You Before Me - I ask myself the questions above. I bring to life my concerns with sequential images that, although they come from my own subjectivity, could reasonably represent a more generalised set of issues. I process the images with digital engraving, wood, and fibrous paper, using the grain and weave of the materials to meld history, memory and fiction. The resulting tableaux cross time and perspectives, and invite the viewer to step into this creative and, at times, unsettling space.
