Intrigued by the imposed audio limitations placed upon your artist group, I can assure you that your whispers are coming through ‘loud and clear’.

Observing you on your ‘island’, your cell, I can connect with you from my ‘natural soapbox’ (a large protruding rock within the valley). I will respond with a ‘rant’ with a self-imposed limitation that it should come from this place. However, the quest for clarity of thought, of word, of action risks going unseen.

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June 2019 saw the worst forest fire in 25 years in the Ribera d’Ebre region of Catalunya burning over 6000 hectares of pine, olive and almond trees. As part of a creative initiative entitled ‘Cendrart’ – ‘cendra’ meaning ash in Catalan – I was invited to create a site-specific work for temporary exhibition within the cremated forest.

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The weekend of the 5th and 6th of October 2019 was an intense period spent moving between the burnt trees of the Maials area of the Ribera d’Ebre region of Catalunya, one of the affected areas of the forest fire in June of this year.

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‘Purge II’ is an isolated, secretive performance behind closed doors but to camera presenting the artist purging communion wafers in a silent attempt to communicate with the viewer. Requesting or demanding a ‘following’ of sorts, as if a move towards the environment the artist inhabits is an inviting prospect.

The wafers are continuously regurgitated and what once was ‘inside’ the artist’s body is now presented ‘outside’ upon a wooden surface forming words for the viewer to follow and read. Living within an alternative existence ‘outside’ a prescribed societal norm, isolated and disconnected from the grid, the artist attempts to persuade and to recruit by means of throwing up her once consumed communion wafers. As if rejecting one form of following and suggesting another, an ‘other’, other…

I am enveloped within a private olive grove valley, surrounded by the Catalan mountains with the nearest populated village of Riba-roja d’Ebre over 3km away. I visit the village at least once a week to absorb the rituals. The Catalan language still mystifies me, only having Spanish as my second language. Catalan has been protected within the home by women across generations. A strong cultural identity pervades this rural, underpopulated place. My studio, in the olive grove, is isolated, I have no neighbours, no ‘passers-by’. My family are in the UK, where I am originally from. My practice and daily life on this wild, off-grid finca merges into one. I chop wood, build, restore, prune trees, landscape, harvest, moving around this place like some kind of performative act. Survival is a daily concern, collecting rain water for washing, ash from wood burners to compost waste, improving dry clay soil for cultivation. My movements and energies are specific to this place. A sense of closeness to the wildlife and the weather here in the valley creates at times a sensorial overload which can only be made sense of by presenting this connection within my art practice.

Current research and investigation into an off-grid existence, which at this time of year feels like some sort of test of survival, fires become a site of ruin but offer much needed energy. The collection of the found objects which have survived the fire are then given value as an art object. They show the history of the ruin, they tell the story of the decimation and then are held in ordered compositions to present their new found level of importance, categorised in an attempt to find order from chaos.

Make work, burn it,
How to make paint using ashes
No restrictions, no limitations, outside of the system,
the rules, the lines,
Who am I talking to? What am I challenging?
Are you still suppressing me, prescribing to me?
I am surreal,
Perverse,
Outside
Out of the darkness, I am here

A visit to Vienna includes visiting exhibitions, wondering through the old streets, eating at various plant based venues and searching for a strong enough coffee to continue the next day. The film festival is during my visit, I watch Nils Frahm whilst I work my way through the craft beer on offer.

A welcome break from the heat of the Catalan mountains, Vienna is a pleasant 28 degrees with cloud and a little rain, perfect conditions to walk non-stop for 4 days. The whole city has a cultured air, which is only intensified when reaching the MQ (Museum Quarter). The architecture (Mumok especially) and socially engaging seating within the courtyard creates such a wonderfully relaxed environment where I could spend hours contemplating. read more »

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The process cycle/circle has been an experiment within the Block_Chain the Power of Two project; firstly drawing cracks using charcoal on paper, then burning these drawings, the ashes saved and used to create paint. The ash paint like beauty cream or mask, I applied it to my face, the lower half as if silencing me, controlling my voice. read more »