Tag Archives: Art

What is postmemory?

Here is a short (less than 2 minutes) video with my take on the backbone to my creative practice; the concept of postmemory. First developed to describe the transmitted trauma to the children of holocaust survivors, this term is incredibly meaningful in anchoring my own experience of living with my father’s traumatic lifelong exile fromContinue reading “What is postmemory?”

“trajectory of your bomb through my washing line”

As the debate about bombing Syria has been raging in England we’ve witnessed a decent and honest politician being vilified in many quarters for opposing this action. Polls have shown that the majority of citizens don’t want to bomb Syria and yet somehow this doesn’t count. We are being silenced and a horrendous cycle ofContinue reading ““trajectory of your bomb through my washing line””

Crossing The Line

Today’s post is a mediation on the line. The line has become a constant motif in my paintings since the introduction of the typewriter ribbon in Exilio 2014 shown in the first image below. During Q & A after a performance of The Sadness of Being Nothing at Bangor University Department of Modern Languages andContinue reading “Crossing The Line”

Improvising Performance

It was an incredible experience to find myself again in performance and to talk about the work in conversation with Dr Eva Bru Dominguez. Although performance for me is based on detailed research and as an object artist I must pack and predetermine the components of my piece, the moment of performance is improvised. UsuallyContinue reading “Improvising Performance”

The Long March – 1939 to 2015

A video which speaks for itself. Progress from the studio in a work direct from the unconscious which references photograph taken by Robert Capa of Spanish Republican exiles being marched from Argelès sur Mer internment camp to the camp at Barcarès. My father was among those marching under armed guard.

Talking Head

To my surprise I made this video today. I was finishing up working through performance ideas when it occurred to me to speak to camera. It had been a productive morning. I decided to strip back my forthcoming performance The Sadness of Being Nothing, to it’s bare essentials as I suddenly saw that it hadContinue reading “Talking Head”

Video As Thought

Today I worked through some ideas for a forthcoming performance piece The Sadness of Being Nothing. As I worked I realised deep within me that video making is like blogging and raking my fingers through the sand. Video making has become thinking, and the more I learn (as I make) the more helpful the processContinue reading “Video As Thought”

What a Performance!

This is a photograph of me becoming character in my studio – in truth this character derives from a collage of impressions and memory and is an extension of the self. I explore the boundaries between acting and performance art. In this blog post I write about art performance and the genesis of performance inContinue reading “What a Performance!”

The Sadness of Being Nothing

This image is from an assemblage piece called VIGIL, made last winter in  freezing conditions in my studio. It was made to honour Spanish Republican exiles who fled Spain to be held captive behind barbed wire in the interment camps on the beaches of France in February 1939. This post is about that moment whenContinue reading “The Sadness of Being Nothing”