I’m currently on the edge of the world, aka Pembrokeshire, Wales. I got here after 34 years of travel via Kent, Glasgow, Warsaw and Bristol. My practice mostly involves a lot of experimental approaches to collage and land art. Cutting things weird or stealing away tiny fragments of mountains, oceans and valleys, then losing them again. I use my process to stay connected, it keeps me anchored, attached and active. It also keeps me excited. I have always been in love with art, even when I have hated it. And I have always strived to push my understanding of what art actually is and what it can do.

@chopchopcollage

Process

Look everyone, I found a rock! That's me, clambering about looking for pint sized rocks to nab from tiny mountain peaks, this rock will then end up in a valley, a carpark, or perhaps even a Mexican temple! Oh, and what's that wiggly thing? So yeah, that's me cutting through an image in a series of wiggles, inspired by Zen Buddhism, a talk by Alan Watts, and my own feelings about existence, the flow of time and how one day everything will be nothing again and visa versa. Also, I have recently begun a very small zine press for experimental short form works, this is a great way to begin to build a practice or test out new ideas and see how they sit in the world. I use it for myself and also print other peoples’ work too.

Influences

This is such a hard thing to pin down. My inspirations change almost daily. Every day I see something that either excites, annoys or provokes me. Artists that have the bravery and strength to push their own practice and really mess around with it, challenging themselves and others to say what art exactly is. Someone I’ve come back to time and again is Olaf Breuning. Sometimes I’ll leave him for a few years, but I always seem to orbit back around to see what he’s up to. I’m not sure how many people would put him in the same bracket as Andy Goldsworthy, but I would. Andy’s work is so gentle and yet provocative, playful yet loaded with importance. Zen is also a massive overarching inspiration to my work, so Alan Watts is there too - he wasn’t a master, but rather a scholar and is a great place to start any research into Eastern religious philosophies. Also tarot, oh! and snorkeling, oh! Wolfgang Tillmans, oh! Stefan Themerson.

Challenges

Maybe it sounds a little ridiculous, certainly I would have found it ridiculous before it happened, but moving out of the city has been a massive obstacle for me. I have found it a real struggle to keep up with my practice and find my rhythm. I think the cities have always informed my work somehow, even if indirectly. They have also fed me with a confidence, that I can show my work and the audience for it will be there, somewhere. But here, in the rural environment, that audience is much harder to see, and I have struggled with feeling judged and misunderstood. I have also really struggled to understand quite how to use the rural environment to my advantage. I am slowly figuring it out, simply realising that I do not need to make work about the environment, but with it, to create a practice that points elsewhere.

Reflection

The zine press I am developing is gaining some really good momentum. I’m always looking for contributors, so if anyone reading this is interesting then do please get in touch. I continue to collect and deposit rocks, sand, water, earth around the world. I am still finding the best way to document this practice, everything i’ve tried so far I’m not fully happy with. I think I need to just do the work and it will find it’s own way. Collage as many days of the week as I can, at least until can’t hold the knife anymore. And relax, just stop worrying about what post to post when and where. Just make the work.