My practice is concerned with the ways in which we associate with our environment and the significances we place on particular activities and events. I’m fascinated both with traditional festivals, rites and the nostalgic longing to live in harmony with our environment. Working within a research-based practice I take an idiosyncratic view of cultural phenomenon, often drawing on game play, competition and re-enactment.
A significant part of my current practice is devoted to an ongoing series of work called Wiseman. Wiseman is an alter ego of mine - an uber-armchair-survivalist who ineptly uses sources of information such as the SAS Survival Handbook as a guide to show him how to ‘get back to his roots’. In this way I use Wiseman to confront ideas of self-sufficiency and the sense of loss that afflicts modern man. Past works in this series has seen Wiseman attempt to make animal traps out of Ikea furniture (Fördömda Kanin, 2004) and survive off the land (6 Day Wiseman, 2006). However the most recent work in the series is Reach - a synchronised dual video projection that sees Wiseman face, once again, the wilderness embodied as a giant rabbit.
An interest in ancient and ‘time-served’ traditions along with a preoccupation with how and why certain events flourish has led to another aspect of my practice. Just as geneticists use the fruit fly Drosophila in experiments because of its simple genetic make-up in the past I have concentrated on rural or isolated regions to try and understand the evolution of cultural events. One such region is Antarctica and its history demonstrates another concern present in some of my work.
As a continent devoid of indigenous culture with a history full of political wrangling, all of the community’s customs on Antarctica have been brought with the adventurers that land there. The significances of these events and the export/import of customs formed a basis on which people came to terms with this land and the ‘new start’ they made on it. Antarctica is a very extreme example of just how customs are perpetuated; however I feel that most communities constantly face the frontier of the ‘new’ either through migration or technological and ethical shifts. With these changes comes a decision on ‘just what elements of our origins should we upheld?’ - this is just one of the questions I contemplate in my work.
I utilise several methods to communicate my ideas from photography, video and drawing to installations and performance. However research is the starting point for all the work and it often dictates the manner in which the work is made. In investigating the mutation of culture’s outpourings I endeavour to splice together different elements to create new events; thus mimicking the process I’m trying to highlight.