My practice revolves around exploring agricultural identity, through environmental, industrial, and cultural relationships. I draw from my personal experience and environment on the family farm to investigate layers of narratives, primarily through photographical and textile-based mediums.
Having grown up adhering to the agricultural calendar and ‘way of life’, I am very aware of its cyclic nature, as a system in which grounds the relationships occurring between industry, environment, and family. Even within the mediums that I use, I see this nature mirrored through the repetitive and tactile workings of stitching, taking images, and developing film. This element of routine and repetition is an integral part of the farming identity, appearing as visible and non-visible manifestations, such as physical marks upon the land caused by repetitious practices.
Think patchwork fields and tractor tracks.
Or alternatively, the social connections taking place within the industrial and domestic spaces, like at teatime. I document and piece together many of these aspects, to create a portrait, or alternative mapping of my home and its dynamics. Understandably, the subjects of my work and I are close, therefore I am sensitive towards my portrayal of them. Still, I aim to bring a sense of reality, whilst illustrating the deeper layers of connections and wider contexts operating, such as around gender, sustainability, and the death of family farming.