IMPOSSIBLE CHANGELING : 2008

An off-site project for the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne, sited on the beach and which took place during the period before the gallery moved from its Georgian home to a new architect designed space.























The interior of Beach Hut no 8 was covered in gold leaf, in addition 142 pebbles - the number of miles between my studio in Suffolk and Eastbourne - were also gilded and replaced onto the beach at regular intervals during the show for the public to find.









Click here to read reviews

THE INISHLAKEN PROJECT : 2007

The Inishlacken Project honours artists from before and during the 1950’s who spent time on the remote Irish island of Inishlacken, using the place and community as inspiration.

Situated one mile off the west coast of County Galway, Inishlacken is now uninhabited. In 2007 sixteen artists of all nationalities lived on the island using their time for research and development of new work, leading to anexhibition in Galway Arts centre in 2008.





















To read the story of my time on the island, click here

MANIPULATE : 2006

Artists's Space, Firstsite, Colchester
25th May - 24th June

A residency at Visions Gallery in Tokyo, part of the Norwich School of Art and Design exchange programme formed the basis of my research whilst in the Artist Space at Firstsite, spending time reflecting and distilling the experiences of Japan.





Being; a multi screen video piece comparing British and Japanese communication within the context of tea drinking in the domestic environment, was screened concurrently in the two countries. The work functions as a cultural document, exploring and comparing humankind and the peculiarities of communication in relation to context. 












In addition, three new works were made, Shibuya Crossing, Keio Line reveal the feelings of displacement when immersed in another culture and Untitled (believe) is a comment on the social and ethical beliefs of a changing culture by taking the principles of the tea ceremony and reproducing these in vivid urban neon signs.



Click here to read related article by Caroline Wright published in
AN Magazine August 2006






Untitled (believe)

LINES OF COMMUNICATION : 2004-6

Lines of Communication is an artist's research residency, public event and web publication examining communication structures through the interrelationship between visual arts practice and speech therapy science and applications. The project is being undertaken by artist Caroline Wright and is based in the Speech and Language Therapy Department of Addenbrooke's Hospital Cambridge. The residency will culminate in artwork that will be exhibited within Addenbrooke's Hospital and also at the Babylon Gallery, Ely in 2005 and a research document published on the web. The project is funded by Arts Council England and Artsadmin and supported by Addenbrooke's Hospital. Norwich School of Art and Design and Willis Newson Arts and Health Consultancy.

* research the voice as a means of communication: its function and malfunction *
* foster a professional interface and identify common ground between artists and scientists *
* develop through interchange with scientists a mutually relevant aesthetic language to communicate ideas *
* express the outcome in an artistic form that provides a gateway for comprehension and engagement with others *
* address the impact of technology on the conversation and traditional forms of communication *

click here to visit web site
click here to read review by Jo Clemance
click here to read catalogue essay by Andrea Holland

THE RAINBOW PASSAGE
DVD, 3 minute loop

click here to watch video

The Rainbow Passage shows video footage taken during a nasendoscopy. This procedure (when a small camera is inserted into the nose and follows a path to the back of the oral cavity until the vocal folds are visible) allows medical professionals to clearly see the body ‘in action’ and to examine for any abnormalities.













The artist has chosen to take the viewer directly to the source of the audible voice, confronting them with an intimate view of the functioning body. The text being read is The Rainbow Passage – a text commonly used by speech and language therapists when assessing the voice. It is heard through short-lead headphones placing the viewer in close proximity to the visual image. The sound is distant and ethereal, almost disembodied and there is a real beauty in the choreography of the moving image. It dances and pulses, affecting the air with complete accuracy and control.


PRECIOUS
Glass, gold leaf, giclee print, each 35cms x 49.2cms

Precious is a series of nine digital prints onto gold leaf presented sandwiched between sheets of glass. In the course of the Lines of Communication project, talking to speech therapy patients and their relatives, it became clear how much our voices are taken for granted and only when faced with loss do we realise how valuable the voice is. During discussions the word ‘precious’ recurred time and again prompting a work that used rare and precious materials.





34 MINUTES
Dialogue, Paper, ink

By speaking to another person, we can communicate significant amounts of information in a short period of time. Body language, eye contact, intonation, volume and pace all contribute to the imparting of information through a system of signs. 34 minutes (dialogue) is a written transcript of a conversation between myself and Margaret, a patient who is suffering with Motor Neurone Disease. Understandably the pace of the conversation was very different to a verbal dialogue and the very specific presentation of this work is chosen to reflect this. In order to follow the thread of the exchange it is necessary to walk between the two texts, creating an artificial gap and alteration of tempo. The title of the work reflects the time taken for the written conversation to take place.


COCOON
Pencil and graphite on paper

Conversation can envelop and sustain, surrounding the protagonists in a secure environment where their place in the world is assured. During the Lines of Communication project the artist interviewed many people about their personal feelings engendered during conversation. A thread ran through their words – that of feeling warm, comfortable and safe when engaged in friendly discourse. Communicating can equally be a stressful experience. In The Rustle of Language, Roland Barthes states Speech is irreversible, that is its fatality. The drawing Cocoon is the artist’s response to the interior and exterior nature of information exchange together with underlying references to the physical structure of the vocal cavity. This work is one of several drawings made early in the Lines of Communication project.




SLIP OF THE TONGUE
DVD, 2 minute loop

click here to watch video

The tongue plays a crucial role in the formation of vocal sound. It acts as conductor and orchestrator of sound within the oral cavity. Using an ultrasound scanner (more commonly associated with antenatal use) is a new method of exploring vocal production. In this work it is the artist’s own tongue, scanned from below the chin. The resulting image – a grainy moving eel-like shape swimming across the screen is surprisingly agile. The accompanying sound (heard through earphones) exaggerates the ‘inner’ corporeal voice that is experienced when talking and in this work is panned across from right to left filling the viewer’s head with resonance and reverberation.


UNTITLED (BREATHING)
Glass, nylon fishing line






Corporeal mechanisms possess fragility. And yet the assumption of strength and longevity that is conferred [foolishly] onto our bodies is commonplace. The material chosen for Untitled (breathing) reflects these characteristics. Glass is both strong and easily broken.

Untitled (breathing) attempts to visually represent a section of the pathway of breath within the larynx area. The work comprises clear glass shapes with open apertures at each end, shaped as ridged tubes blossoming out to bulbous opening forms. They are at first glance of the same family. On closer inspection each shape is individual, inconsistencies evident – some suggestive of constrictions, others with gashes or splits. The moulding of the material was a challenge between the maker and the molten glass, a play and balance between control and disorder mediated by the maker’s exhaled breath and manual dexterity.






It could be suggested that Untitled (breathing) relates to abnormalities or medical conditions observed during surgical procedures. Certainly nodules, fissures, constrictions and tumour-like forms can be seen. Loosely based on three sets of dimensions, symbolising man woman and child, the pieces are displayed as a group, almost imperceptibly moving to the changing air currents in the room. When observed in relation to difference, uniqueness and personality, the pieces become a group of people relating to each other and to the world around them.





UTTERANCE
Photographs, each 59.38cms x 83.98cms

At first glance the images that make up Utterance are a combination of tonal areas with minimal evidential traces. The long exposure shots of speaking mouths grow out of the images tortured and distorted. The visual 3echanics of speech are taken apart and reconstituted physically into a cinematic size image. The dark deliberately velvety surface is seductive drawing the viewer into the work before vividly portraying an image of emotion and frustration. Utterance questions the relationship between physical and mental events and explores ownership of the body and the responsibility we assume for what we give out to the world.



This work was made in response to a conversation with a patient who had lost her ability to speak for several days due to a medical condition. She expressed her frustration and the sense of bereavement experienced when unable to communicate, describing it as torturous.

IN/OUT : 2004


A collaboration with Anna Townley
in/out is an exploration into systems and information exchange and has manifest in several guises – in/out: butley, in/out: trolley and in/out: post. Anna and I have made installations, presented a travelling postal communications trolley and exchanged works via the postal system in a growing body of work.

WORLD AIDS DAY : 2003



Commission from Colchester Borough Council to work with pupils from Stanway Middle School on a project to explore Aids and HIV and look at how this related to the pupils’ friends, families and people of Colchester. Large-scale photograms were produced to hang in the Digby Gallery illustrating silhouettes of homogenous man, indicating the indiscriminate nature of the condition.

TRANSLATION IS A VITAL ART : 2001







Residency and Commission
in collaboration with
poet Stephen Watts
Screenprinted and painted paper
and Perspex





The project Breathing Spaces, for Vital Arts at the Royal London Hospital Whitechapel was instigated to raise awareness of the work of the health advocates – a team of dedicated translators who enable language and communication difficulties to be overcome between patients, doctor and/or relatives. Through a programme os shadowing, workshops and collection of significant texts and objects from the advocates, Stephen Watts and myself slowly built a picture of the paths taken by these staff to reach their present position. The resulting artwork, which hangs in the main hospital entrance area, is entitled Translation is a Vital Art and incorporates several languages. It is accompanied by a printed card for people to take away giving details of where and how they can contact the advocates.