I admire comics, fairy tales and religion for their ability to make digestible awkward truths. My work as an animator has evolved into live storytelling in the form of performance with animation, and most of my pictorial work stems from the worlds contained within my stories.
Using an improvisational approach reflecting the processes of making stop-frame animated films; collages build into narrative and animated figures who’s scales are governed by a secret law.
‘Animation, like a mural or piece of street art was something which could bypass the elitism of the mainstream gallery and yet still provide a challenging message. When my first animated films were shown on television in the 1990’s reaching thousands of people I was thrilled, it felt like the last frontier; we didn’t have the internet in those days.’
I have enjoyed collaboration with many artists, such as singers Peter Murphy and Edward Tudor Pole, performance artist Rose English. In 2008 I helped women artists network by setting up British Women Artists which also had a prestegious prize. Currently I am involved in setting up a small group of artists with a manifesto and title ‘The Point,’ partly inspired by the wonderful and ironic animated film ‘The Point,’ we claim to be making pointless works to make a ‘point.’ As with many of my ideas beautiful humour is the place that I find the most meaning.
My visual art was selected twice for The New Contemporaries exhibition, in which I was also a prize winner; I have exhibited, amongst others, at Wellcome Collection, and District of Columbia Arts Center USA, in ‘The New Future’ with two other artists focusing on issues of science and space. I also showed in a touring exhibition ‘Dear Christine,’ funded by The Arts Council of Great Britain, which opened at Vane Art Gallery, Newcastle, UK, and went onto the Elysium Gallery in Swansea, Wales. My performance (as video) and visual art will feature in the 2021 Venice Biennale.
My avant-garde animated films have been screened internationally and on UK television; winning the Grand Prize at Zagreb International Festival of Animated Film, The Time Out Film Award, and Best Debute Animated Film at the British Film Awards, their stories noted by mythographer Marina Warner they are a part of the BFI Collection. Please note if you go to the bottom of this page you will be able to find a more comprehensive selection of my visual art.*
Painting
Currently showing in Apocalypse Biennale which marks the 2021 cancelled Venice Biennale by celebrating the art of the Apocalypse: revisiting Albrecht Durer’s 15th Century woodcuts and showing new work from contemporary European artists.
2020 – Was a part of Dear Christine (a Tribute to Christine Keeler), Arthouse 1, London, Elysium Gallery, Swansea, UK. 2019 – The inaugural Wales Contemporary Exhibition, showcasing painting, drawing and original prints by national and international artists), Waterfront Gallery, Wales, UK Mall Galleries, London.
Installation and video work
In 2007 I embarked on the ‘6 Days Goodbye Poems Of Ophelia’ project. The project is a living painting in bacteria, a re-telling of the story of Ophelia’s death depicted in John Everett Millais’ oil painting; seeing her death as a form of beautiful transformation a return to the land. The work uses the movement of live bacteria for animation and was created in a sterile laboratory,(commissioned by The Wellcome Trust, science by Dr Simon Park), the poetic soundtracks to the animations, created by the public with some of the international poetry soundscapes are still in process.
Flatlanders (2007), an animated video installation premiered in Guildford Cathedral alongside a debate which included, herself and physicists Dr Brian Cox and Dr Jim al Khalili, ‘Is Science The New Religion?’ The work referenced the ancient Greek character of Themis, in connection with the launch of the epic experiment at CERN, incorporating sound taken from the The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator.(thanks to Milton Mermikides for sounds).
Performance
Jowonder And The Psychic Tea Leaves, is an audience interactive performance in the manner of a mock Victorian Séance; using humor as a central device, incorporating improvisation. A chosen member of the audience drinks a cup of tea -and the process unravels. Some venues have been: St John on Bethnal Green, Cabaret Futura, Courtyard Theatre and End Of The Pier Show, live music chronologically thanks to: Billy Smith, Jowe Head, Ansuman Biswas and Andrew Hedges. See also link below: