Invisible Cities, Istanbul

A research project I conducted whilst a lecturer at the London College of Communication. The project aim was inspired by Italo Calvino's 'Invisible Cities', and we were invited to visit & find ways to describe the city of Istanbul. I collected waste from 3 different parts of the city, each from within a one metre square area. The waste was mostly fragments, tiny remnants of activities, but highlighted the global nature of litter & wasted resources. I re-presented the findings on the gallery floor - ordered and organised back into a one metre square area. (Istanbul, 2003)

Fork in the Road, Sheffield

A Sheffield based project inspired by the disposable cutlery I noticed littering the streets of Sheffield. It struck me that this particular type of litter was in stark contrast to Sheffield’s famed steel cutlery industry. I found areas on the map where the road lay out was fork shaped and collected all the disposable fork fragments I came across whilst walking in those areas. I cleaned, organised and displayed them according to levels of degradation. These were exhibited in the exhibition ‘Beauty in the Disregarded’ at the Old Gallery & Museum, Leamington Spa. (Sheffield, 2008)

Fields of Learning

A collaboration with Handspring Design to create Typographic Signage for a new building at Newfield School from waste from an old building. Letters were made from reclaimed glass bricks, parquet flooring, old door handles, gym bars, chairs, rubber matting etc. (Sheffield, 2009)

Our Daily Bread

A long term ongoing collection of bread tags from hundreds of loaves of bread - the goal to collect the whole year. Exhibited in 'Beauty in the Disregarded' in The Old Art Gallery & Museum, Leamington Spa, 2008.

Glass Tower

From slices of wine bottles, I experimented with gluing together a stripey tower of glass. (London, 1999)

Recycled Rabbit Ears

From scraps of wool cut off from the plentiful habits of my Mum & Gran's knitting habit, I knotted & knitted enough wool to warm my rabbit's ears in the winter months! (London, 1999)

Fruit & Vegetable Nets

Having collected fruit & vegetable nets for many years, I have sorted and collated them according to colour and width, and framed them as collections in box frames. Individual types have also been trapped in small slide frames to display the various colours and net patterns. These were part of the exhibition 'Beauty in the Disregarded' at the Old Art Gallery and Museum, Leamington Spa in 2008.

Re-usable Sanitary Towels

As part of an in depth MA project exploring the relationship between women, menstruation & sanitary products, the visual solutions included a range of towels to subvert & compete with the qualities of disposable towels. The project was aimed to encourage discussion around a potentially controversial and personal topic, and challenge the taboo of 'hiding' menstruation away. It was also aiming to update the concept of washable sanitary protection for young women today. (Royal College of Art, London, 1997)

Re-usable Postcards

Made from the inside of juice and milk cartons, these erasable, re-usable postcards were sent through the Royal Mail over and over again. (Glasgow School of Art, 1995)

Knitted Plastic Bag

From a yarn created from about 20 supermarket carrier bags, one new bag was knitted. (London, 1999)

Ring-pull necklaces

Ring-pulls found on the streets were split in two to form different chain links for necklaces. The aim was to emphasise a shift in value from street litter to jewellery. (Glasgow, 1996)

Ring-pull Alphabet

Alphabet hand-made from found ring-pulls, and screenprinted onto cardboard box - previously drinks can packaging. (Glasgow, 1995)

Bone China 'Polystyrene' Cup and Silver Stirrer

Polystyrene cups were cast in bone china, highlighting the parallels between the fragility and beauty of the two material types, but also emphasising the contrast in their disposability and durability. Plastic stirrers were cast in solid silver to complement the china. (Glasgow School of Art, 1995)

Polystyrene Cup Collection

Having collected hundreds of used polystyrene cups from a canteen, I washed and stitched them together with elastic and built a wall of cups. Using projections, I then attempted to highlight how ridiculous the waste of resources and money is with continual disposal of hundreds of disposable cups rather than the re-use of one. (Glasgow School of Art, 1995)