At the core of what I do lies an exploration of origins.  In a world that has moved so far from where we started, I feel there is always a need to reappraise this journey.  I draw together evolutionary biology, archaeology and ethnology with tribal and religious iconography in an exploration that is influenced by museum collections and sacred art.  The result is a visual response to a sense of the numinous derived from the consideration of natural forms, their genesis and functions.

Trained as an artist and biologist I explore the connections between art and science through themes from biology, palaeontolgy, anthropology and archaeology.  Rather than comment on or respond to the life sciences as illustration or representation, I work from within biological concepts towards a visual aesthetic that moves around the boundaries between analogy and metaphor.  This process results in a fascinating tension between the alien and familiar by virtue of the ideas that run subliminally through our framework of perception and being.  As J.G. Ballard put it, “Each one of us is as old as the entire biological kingdom, and our bloodstreams are tributaries of the great sea of its total memory.”

The work presented involves ‘drawing’ in clay three dimensional analogies of organic concepts that go towards compiling an artificial natural history.  It is part of an evolving secular reliquary or sacred natural history in which icons or votive offerings reflect an ambivalence towards veneration and anthropocentric expressions of humanity’s sense of place.  As an extension to this, my project at Nottingham Trent University 'Idolatrous Me" will involve working with sound, sculpture, printing and audience participation.