Graft i

46 x 36 cm

Collagraph on paper with sublimation print textile

Incidence

174 x 64 x 15 cm

Screen print on board with Perspex

‘Incidence’ explores both a spiritual and scientific response to nature.
Reflecting on the loss of childhood it exploits a nostalgia for youthful abandon when nature was full of wonders to be discovered. It employs live edge Perspex to capture light and cast colourful shadows across the work creating a visible Angle of Incidence: the angle formed by a ray incident on a surface and a perpendicular to the surface at the point of incidence.

Subluminal

35 x 55 x 12 cm

Screen print on board with Perspex

Rainforest Section v/e 2

58 x 86 cm

Screen print, sublimation print, synthetic textile heat cut onto cotton canvas

This disintegrating landscape reveals its dependency on man in the wooden sticks supporting the tender stems of the orchid.

Lapse

85 x 68 cm

Sublimation print on synthetic textiles

Rainforest Section v/e 1

58 x 86 cm

Heat cut synthetic fabric on board, sublimation and screen print

This disintegrating landscape reveals its dependency on man in the wooden sticks supporting the tender stems of the orchid.

Bearing Gifts

60 x 38 x 12 cm

Lightbox - screen print on board and acrylic sheet, sublimation print on layered organza and polyester

‘Bearing gifts’ introduces the Magi of the nativity story to the burden of the present day seasonal shopping experience. 
Seen through the haze of romantic delusion the figures of the wise men appear as illusive as the purchase of the perfect Christmas.

Bar of Wonder

60 x 38 x 12 cm

Light box- screen print on board and acrylic sheet, sublimation print on layered organza and polyester

‘Bar of wonder’ places characters from the nativity story into a contemporary Christmas setting, infiltrating a prosaic reality with peripheral and ethereal images that are evoked by the traditions that surround this annual ritual.

Gateway

58 x 35 cm

Incised synthetic fabric on board, sublimation and screen print

Red roses a symbol of desire are rupturing the surface of a degenerate landscape

Flightpath    

112 x 78 cm

Screen Print on vintage satin

Taking the cliché of the urban jungle as inspiration, the greys of the city are replaced with greens and blues of nature and the unnatural shadows in the sky are macaws not 747’s.

Calypso Wanderer

59 x 36 cm

Sublimation print, incised synthetic fabric on board

Inspired by the evocative names given to the prosaic caravan. A black and white image of a caravan parked in a suburban driveway is scored into to reveal multicoloured tropical foliage redolent of a much more adventurous journey than might actually take place in such a vehicle.

Calypso Wanderer MKII

59 x 35 cm

Sublimation print, incised synthetic fabric on board

Inspired by the evocative names given to the prosaic caravan. A black and white image of a caravan parked in a suburban driveway is scored into to reveal multicoloured tropical foliage redolent of a much more adventurous journey than might actually take place in such a vehicle.

Collected Thoughts

75 x 80 x 10 cm (approx)

Screen print on board, sublimation print on textiles, mixed media

This work draws on ideas of preservation and references the Victorian enthusiasm for creating romantic tableaux of the natural world held in glass domes. A contemporary plastic food packaging tray replaces the glass dome distorting the view of an apparently idyllic scene caught against a grey urban backdrop as in a moment’s hazy daydream.

Hélène Roûge

45cm x 56cm

Screen print, reactive print on silk crêpe with flocking

This work remembers Hélène Stopford.

Alfresco

110 cm x 70 cm

Screen print, sublimation print, cut and heat fused polyester on board

From the Italian meaning ‘in the fresh air’ is an examination of the contemporary urban outdoors. It looks at current social use of outside space and what ingredients are considered acceptable or desirable to create an appealing setting.

StrataGem

StrataGem (i)
99 x 70 x 5 cm
Screen print over reactive print, with microfine silver glitter on silk viscose

StrataGem (ii)
99 x 70 x 5 cm
Screen print over reactive print, with microfine iridescent glitter on silk viscose

StrataGem (iii)
99 x 70 x 5 cm
Screen print, white opaque and gloss pigments on satin

StrataGem (iv)
99 x 70 x 5cm
Screen print with microfine black glitter on satin

StrataGem (v)
98 x 65cx 5cm
Screen print on silver taffeta

This work considers the possibility of the formation of geological strata created from the waste of plastic food packaging trays.

Entrance

85 x 68 x 21 cm

Light box – screen print on board and acrylic sheet, disperse print on layered organza and polyester

entrance n. 1. an opening allowing access. 2. an act of entering. 3. the right, means, or opportunity to enter.

entrance v. fill with wonder and delight, cast a spell on.

Binformation

122 x 154 cm

Reactive and sublimation print, polyester cut and heat fused onto cotton

‘Binformation’ considers what new geology might be formed from the cocktail of ingredients disposed of in our landfill sites. 

Restricted View (winter)

195 x 126 x 50 cm

Screen print over reactive print on cotton, sublimation print, mixed media, low energy light

This work invites the viewer to look beyond the drab reality of an urban winter's day to discover a fantasy winter wonderland. Conjured from the collective subconscious, images from Christmas cards, advertising media, films and fiction are collaged together to create a world that exists only in the imagination. Inauthentic yet familiar, this appealing landscape originates form an urge to invent a space that is a haven of beauty and harmony.

Restricted View (summer)

195 x 126 x 50 cm

Screen print over reactive print on cotton, sublimation print, mixed media, low energy light

This work taps into the fantasy of the secret garden, a romantic escape from reality. Imagery of a rough and unkempt natural world taken from around the periphery of the urban park where weeds and vermin are allowed to flourish becomes a conduit to another world where everything is perfect. The miniature world seen through the larger image represents the desire for a perfect nature; something we struggle to attain in real life but have more hope of escaping to in our imagination.

Eden Walk 

23 panels

11.5 x 2 m (approx)

Reactive print on cotton satin, sublimation print on polyester, screen print on muslin, mixed media, lights, rose oil

Eden Walk confronts the haphazard evolution of the urban landscape where the skyline is at the mercy of the town planner and the vagaries of commerce and parochial politics. The viewer is placed in the back streets and alleys where the clean architectural visions that dictate the public face of buildings are forgotten but where the backstage melting pot of construction and dereliction takes on an almost organic quality.

Windowscape

66cm x 30cm

Screen print, reactive print, cut and heat fused polyester on cotton

This work gives prominence to a row of glossy healthy looking pot plants shown against a grey city view. The pot plant plays a major role in the interior spaces of the city, its ubiquitous use has become a familiar backdrop. The indigenous origins of the plant are forgotten as it becomes part of the wallpaper of urban life where deciding if a plant is real or fake is not always easy.

Lost

125 x 105 cm

Screen print, reactive print, mixed media on cotton

This work explores the idea that nature has become as much a part of the constructed environment of the city as the buildings within and around which it is contained.

Urban Nature

59 x 77 cm

Digital print on chiffon over organza & cut vinyl on board  

‘Urban Nature’ collages images of pot plants and manufactured animals onto a backdrop of a city skyline. This confusion of the natural and the manmade reflects the artist’s own experience of nature and corroborates Ulrich Beck’s theory that nature has become indecipherably entwined with society.  

The process of interaction with nature has consumed it, abolished it, and transformed it […] one is dealing with variants of an artificial nature: projections of nature, wish-fulfilment natures, nature utopias, all roughly as natural as a big-screen advertisement replete with roaring, turbulent rivers in the urban bustle.

Emergency

1.5 x 2 x .5 m

Carpet, plastic bags, mixed media

I feel the Earth is so full to bursting with the waste that we try to hide under it's surface that I wouldn't be surprised to see cracks appearing and the stuffing escaping.

Hidden

63 x 105 x 25

Scrim,mixed media,light timer

It is the feeling of frustration experienced through searching for something and the pleasure when all is revealed that I have tried to convey with ‘Hidden’. The work is lit from within for short intervals of 10 seconds.
This work looks at aspects of concealment and focuses on the emotional response that is provoked by the act of discovery.