Profile
I am a creative artist, prop maker and academic. I studied BA Fine Art, Sculpture, in Sheffield and an MA in Creative Media Arts at LSBU, London
In addition to being the course leader for Prop Making, BA at Central, I continue to work as a fine art practitioner, commercial prop-maker, community arts project co-coordinator and researcher.
As an academic and specialist teacher at Central, I continue to develop my research profile, whilst maintaining a significant presence in the freelance world of commercial fabrication and prop-making, facilitating long-standing, and highly visible, campaigns for Oxfam International in the USA, Canada, UK and throughout Europe. I bring to the course my links with the theatre, film and related creative industries such as opera at Glyndebourne, ENO, RHO, museums and the UK Film studios and Television industries, as well as a range of UK and international production companies and organisations.
I have worked extensively as an artist for organisations such as the Womad Foundation, designing and delivering international artists community workshops in Las Palmas, Madrid & Caceres in Spain, Abu Dhabi in the UAE and Pyatigorsk in the Caucasus region of Russia as well as in the UK.
I have worked as a creative practitioner running arts workshops with AFRIL (Action for Refugees in Lewisham), workshops for adults as part of Arthub studios, Woolwich London, and am an associate artist of Emergency Exit Arts. I have also run a creative arts program with Ukrainian and Honduran refugees and Asylum seekers as part of an arts program at The Blackheath Conservatoire, supported by Greenwich council in London
I have worked extensively as a sculptor in Harare, Zimbabwe, Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria South Africa, Sri Lanka and the UAE in Dubai and Sharja.
I undertake research as practice at Central, exploring theories in relation to making and production, materials and sustainability. My studio is based in Southeast London.
Areas of Expertise
- Prop making for theatre, film, television and related industries
- Anatomy for artists
- Sculptural fabrication
- Design interpretation
- History of art
- Material exploration
- Sustainable material
- Practice as research
- Creative workshops
Key Publications
2017. Three reasons to think twice about mapping the brain with Danai Dima and Mike Duggan, The Conversation,
2014. The Sensorial Object
External Practice
2023. (Solo artist) ‘Ephemeral’ White Box Gallery, London
The work explores narratives in relation to environmental protection and activism, and celebrates natural form. It references traditional sculptural techniques and practices, along with an exploration of contemporary materials and transitions to alternative and sustainable methods.
2023 (collaborative) Counterpoint
Counterpoint is an exhibition celebrating the joy of contrast and difference. Members of Lewisham Arthouse have each selected an artist, maker, performer or creative practitioner to exhibit with from outside of the cooperative. Someone whose work contradicts, contrasts or compliments their own in unexpected ways. The resulting show is a series of contrasting pairs, exploring the interplay of works brought together by their differences.
2019. (Sole artist) Confection Reflection, Deptford X
A sculptural installation that invites the audience to enter the surreal and flamboyant world of 19th Century French chef and pâtissier Urbain Dubois. Chef-de-cuisine to the Prussian court, Dubois fused his passion for cuisine with that of architecture, to produce the extravagant ‘pièce montées’, replicated in the gallery.
2022. (Creative programme)
A series of creative art workshops working with Ukrainian and Honduran refugees and Asylum seekers as part of an arts access at The Blackheath Conservatoire, supported by Greenwich council in London.
2019. (Sole artist) Confection Reflection, Deptford X
A sculptural installation that invites the audience to enter the surreal and flamboyant world of 19th Century French chef and pâtissier Urbain Dubois. Chef-de-cuisine to the Prussian court, Dubois fused his passion for cuisine with that of architecture, to produce the extravagant ‘pièce montées’, replicated in the gallery.
2017. (Collaborating academic) Impossible Partnerships: Mapping – (Un)charted Territories . Roundtable discussion, Somerset House, London.
The role of maps in brain imagery, cultural geography, artistic practice, and everyday life, held in collaboration with Danai Dima, Lecturer Cognitive Neuroscience, City, University of London
Mike Duggan, Cultural Geographer, Royal Holloway. The roundtable was facilitated by The Culture Capital Exchange.
2016. (Collaborator) The Sensorial Object: Aurality of Objects
Cross-disciplinary writings curated by Dr Natasha Mayo and Zoe Preece on behalf of the Makers Guild for Wales, Cardiff.
The Sensorial Object, was a publication and exhibition, exploring the sense experience through the materiality of things.
2016. (Presenter and workshop leader) Re-activating Space Symposium - ‘Aurality of Objects’. Research Presentation and MA workshops at Cardiff School of Art with Dr Natasha Mayo, Philippa Lawrence and Professor Wendy Keay-Bright.
Reactivating Space intended to generate proposals for installation artworks in site specific locations around Cardiff School of Art to heighten sensory awareness, and foster empathic experiences.
2015. (Collaborating artist) Extension, ART HUB Gallery, London.
Installation, collaboration with Lex Kosanke, East German sound designer.
‘Extension’ tracks the visual and sonic history of a hair extension back to a Hindu Temple in Chennai, India, previously offered in an act of religious tonsure. It focuses on materiality and the shift in value from a religious to a commercial context. Electromicroscope imaging by Mahmoud Ardnekani, Department of Materials, Imperial College.
2016. (Presenter) Photobook Pop-Up ‘Extension’ Presentation, msdm studio [mobile social design matter] Director Paula Roush.
Practice Research presentation of ‘Extension’ self-assemble artists book.
2015. (Collaborating Artist) ‘Extension’ Installation and research Presentation, LSBU Digital Gallery, London
Extension was presented as an installation in the LSBU Digital Gallery, London. The opening was accompanied by an artist’s talk, with collaborator Lex Kosanke, East German sound designer, who devised the soundtrack.
2013. (Collaborating artist) CHAIR – A Life Backwards, Free Space Gallery, Kentish Town, London
Interactive sound installation, photography, sound-walk, workshops and artists talk, in collaboration with US composer Gregg Fisher and Russian photographer Pavel Legankov
‘Chair’ focuses on the aural history of one of the most commonplace and symbolic objects of everyday life, and explores the complex political and environmental aspects of production.
2012. (Presenter) ‘Rewind’, Group Show, Lewisham Arthouse, London
‘Aurality of Objects’ practice as research archival work “Chair in progress’
2012. (Presenter) ‘Aurality of Objects’, Practice as Research Presentation and artists talk at
RCSSD, London
2010 (Co-presenter) ‘Aurality of Objects’, The Athens Institute for Education and Research
‘Aurality of Objects - Chair - A Life Backwards’. Research paper presentation, in collaboration with Gregg Fisher, US Sound composer/designer.
2009. (Co-artist) ‘Residual Matter’ installation in collaboration with Justin Bennett (The Institute of Sonology, The Hague) at Theatre Noise – The Sound of Performance conference, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
Residual Matter tracks of the coming into being, or ‘birth’ of an object. It explores the raw noise produced when making an object, not ordinarily captured or evaluated, and considers how it might inform our understanding of the object.
2009. (Co-artist) ‘Aurality of Objects-Residual matter’, Shunt Vaults, London Bridge, London
Installation work in collaboration with sound artist Justin Bennett, (Institute of Sonology, the Hague). Residual Matter Film and Residual Matter Stop Motion Film
2009. (Co-artist) ‘Aurality of Objects - Corridor’, Deptford X, Flux, Art House, London
‘Corridor’, Deptford X, London, was part of a series of sound/digital/projection installations. The event was collaboratively produced in conjunction with Amanda Frances, freelance artist, UEL, and Paul Jones, London based digital artist.
Prop Making
COP Glasgow 2021
G7 Summit UK 2021
G7 Summit France 2019
G20 Summit Italy 2017
WOMAD Cáceres, Spain 2018 & 2016
WOMAD Las Palmas, Gran Canaria 2018 & 2007
Register of Interest
Nothing to declare
