To explore religion as subject matter is to explore the consciousness of our fragile humanity, our transience and our enduring desire to create meaning out of meaninglessness. E. Hoffman suggests that 'the structure of belief, no matter what its content, may provide a sort of psychic containment for the unruliness of emotional life'¹. I am interested in ritual as the manifestation of this structure, as the connection between internal and external, sacred and secular, and I am exploring the idea of its practice as performative social behaviour.

With my photographic and video work, I have been exploring the performative nature of ritual through a contemplation of transitional moments in life. These transitions embody an awareness of our vulnerable and precious existence, to which ritual can provide an orienting physical and psychological anchor, whilst nevertheless often at odds with individual matters of spirit. I begin projects by compiling research, texts, interviews and images and then often experiment with the photographic vocabulary of light, colour, composition and print. I draw upon human experience and try to create a sense of human narrative through my image making, allowing the viewer to access the work through the filter of his/her own experience and memory.

Whilst my work is primarily photography based, I like to find the right process to suit the concept. The AA2A scheme offers an exciting opportunity for experimentation with materials and processes as well as the space and time to produce photographic and video work stemming up from my ongoing research. I would like to push the boundaries of my own practice, including experimenting to create text-based work emerging from a series of collated interviews. I see the facilities, lecture programmes and interaction with other artists and students as central to this development.

¹ P 39, After Such Knowledge, Eva Hoffman