Can you describe your work in five words?
Decadent, complex, intense, meticulous, subversive.
What is your typical process when working?
It seems that as long as it’s difficult, laborious, challenging and expensive, I will be doing it! That is, sculptures in crystal, optical glass, leather, metal, Swarovski crystals, lace, etc. Impeccable finish and sumptuous materials are essential for communicating the concepts I deal with, as well as for the visual seduction I aim to engage viewers with.
What is it that attracted you to apply for the Winter Pride UK 2014 Art Award?
Winter Pride UK is a very dynamic Award, which truly welcomes and accepts diversity, and this is what first attracted me to apply. I enjoy sharing my work with new audiences, and Winter Pride definitely brings a wide variety of people together, so that attracted me too. The possibility of showing at Lacey Contemporary – a great new gallery in Notting Hill – was also a rather motivating factor!
How do you feel your work responds to the brief ‘#Art Is…’
I feel that an optical glass sculpture, which has been meticulously made, was inspired by the violence of beauty, and provokes thoughts on vanity through self-criticism responds to the brief rather directly: ‘#Art Is Veins of Vanity’ (amongst many other things, of course!)
Who or what is your biggest inspiration?
The human condition. Visually translating the conundrums of the human soul into beautiful, dark and poetic pieces in order to address and question difficult and yet timeless issues such as evil or vanity – not as general concepts, but as inherent human traits.
What are you most looking forward to at Winter Pride UK 2014?
To engage in artistic and intellectual exchange with other guests, as well seeing all the works of art on display, and watching the performances, which I am rather curious about! And well… I always look forward to an occasion where my 19 inch waist is well received… 😉
Interview by Alice Botham, Winter Pride UK Arts Co-ordinator
Winter Pride Art Awards 