My most recent project was all about Celebratory objects, the stories behind them and then making new, beautiful and exciting Celebratory objects. The work was shown at The Studio Pavilion, House for an Art Lover in Glasgow for three months in 2018.
 

The exhibition was all about how human beings seek out celebration as a counter-balance to the difficulties that life throws at us. ‘Objects of Celebration’ are the material signs of connecting relationships whether emotional or spiritual. 

After extensive research into the theme, conversations, responses to questions from crowd funding backers and social media call outs two recurring global themes developed and became the key focus - Decoration and Movement.

 

Decorating our environment or ourselves for a celebration; Movement from dance rituals to the flapping of bunting, these are the two elements that have informed this body of work. 
‘Things on springs’ was an installation of over 60 constructions that visually tell the narratives I have collected about the rituals of celebration.

A conversation and a present triggered the design idea for the installation.

The Conversation...My cousin Fiona worked in Papa New Guinea and described constructions that she saw at celebrations and cultural shows. Using gathered flora and fauna people created beautiful, symbolic, decorative head dresses for each tribe with surprising additions of found objects like tatty old tinsel or a plastic fork. For many years I have been collecting found objects or things that I did not want to throw out. Inspired by these headdresses I found the perfect opportunity to use this collection in my work.

The Present...At the beginning of the project a dear friend who knows how much I love utensils gave me an antique whisk. When touched it wobbled for ages. I thought that attaching things to the whisk would be a good way to combine decoration with movement. A factory in Skipton made me perfect replica springs and I spent the summer making things on springs. They all have their own story and will sit wobbling together; hopefully they encapsulate the joyful feelings of celebration.
Also in the exhibition were large textile pieces using screen and digital printed cloth with stitch and a collection of mixed media drawings.

During the process of making the work for this exhibition I realised that I was also celebrating the beauty within the most ordinary objects.
This project has been funded by a successful Kickstarter Crowdfunding campaign. For more information about the campaign click here.

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This is the exhibition catalogue introduction by Louise Briggs, the curator of the gallery.........