I am a socially-engaged visual artist. I work principally with moving image, making standalone artists' film and installations. My work often plays with mainstream and accessible forms – documentary, music video, magazine – so as to move beyond a traditional gallery audience.
I am interested in who makes work, how, why, for whom, and why that matters. I often produce work within a discrete community or interest group, making work with a personal connection to my collaborators and broader social relevance. I want to celebrate and make visible the joy of the making process itself and explore its value for individual and collective growth and change. I develop processes to enable diverse groups of people to make work together. This focus is mirrored in the subject matter of my work, which deals with themes around our social environment and relationships with one another.
Details of shows, talks, teaching, awards etc lives here.
Curatorial work lives here.
My film work is produced by satellite, an artist-led production company.
In 2020 I set up artists’ imprint bored.of.works.
I occasionally assist other artists and friends in a technical capacity - as Director of Photography, experimental film consultant, photographer, that kind of thing. Details of that work lives here.
2023
An Intermission acquired by Arts Council England for the National Art Collection (UK)
2022
Selected - Lodestars - Film London (London, UK)
Prophecy - Mead Gallery (Coventry, UK)
2021
Jury Member - International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) (Amsterdam, NL)
Aesthetica Art Prize - longlist (UK)
Baltic Open (Gateshead, UK)
2020
Bloomberg New Contemporaries (UK)
Trellis Commission - UCL Culture (London, UK)
International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA): Best Children’s Documentary Award - Jury Special Mention (Amsterdam, NL)
Gasworks Residency (London, UK)
2019
British Film Institute (BFI)/DocSociety Made Of Truth Award (UK)
Guardian/Joseph Rowntree Foundation Award - Doc/Fest (Sheffield, UK)
Constellations - UP Projects/Flat Time House (London, UK)
H Is For Hostile Environment is a moving image work made in collaboration with researcher Dr Keren Weitzberg. The work aims to provide a space for people who have suffered under the UK’s border regime to speak about their experiences, whilst also celebrating the rich contribution that people who’ve moved to the UK from overseas have made to our shared social and cultural life.
The work comprises 26 sections, each made in collaboration with a partner who has first-hand experience of the issues at hand. Each section is developed, and then collaboratively made, together.
The Hostile Environment is the name given by then-Home Secretary Theresa May to a basket of government policies which aimed to co-opt large parts of UK society into policing the UK’s borders - from doctors to landlords, employers, homeless services and more. The policy had the stated aim of combatting ‘illegal immigration’ but had real-world, devestating effects on the lives of many thousands of people who live in the UK with migrant heritage. Its most notorious effect was the Windrush Scandal, where large numbers of people of Caribbean heritage, who had lived in the UK for decades and should have enjoyed full citizenship rights, were barred from employment, healthcare, education, benefits and more, and faced mass deportation at the hands of the Home Office.
The film was exhibited at much-loved community venue the Rio Cinema, Dalston, by Chisenhale Gallery, and at UCL East.
Supported by: UCL Culture, Arts Council England
film trailer
production stills from H is for Hostile Environment