Holding the Middle (Residency)

Holding the Middle was a solo residency at Everybody Arts gallery in Halifax. It brought together a large body of mostly unseen work developed over the previous three years. The project responded to a need to encounter the different strands of my practice together for the first time — not simply physically, but as a way of reflecting on the connections, tensions and conversations between them. The project occupied an in-between space: neither a conventional exhibition nor simply an open studio, but a period of documenting, reconfiguring and reflection.

I presented finished works alongside ongoing investigations, working materials, experiments and unresolved pieces spanning different areas of my practice, including works with Whitby jet, abstract drawings, portraits, cyanotypes using hair, and installation-based works. A key aspect of the residency was the opportunity to step back from individual works and consider the practice as a whole. Installing and documenting the work revealed new relationships between pieces, clarified which works had further potential, and helped me understand the different roles individual bodies of work might play within the wider practice. Some works emerged as central areas for further development, while others were better understood as exploratory strands. The curatorial distance afforded by the residency also foregrounded the role installation plays within the works, helping resolve several ongoing investigations.

Reflection continues beyond the project, through reviewing the documentation, thinking about the relationships between the works, and how to articulate these connections through writing. These reflections will feed into future developments, both in the evolution of the artworks themselves and in exploring writing as a more visible part of my practice.

Revisiting Temperamental

One of the most resolved areas of the residency developed around a group of abstract drawings and sculptural experiments, including Temperamental. The gallery space provided an opportunity to experiment with different arrangements, relationships and methods of display, allowing the works to be encountered as a whole installation as well as individual pieces.

Sentimental

The residency provided the opportunity to install a large group of my previously unseen Sentimental drawings together. This is an ongoing body of work of portraits of my daughter. Seeing the portraits collectively, rather than individually or in the studio, revealed their cumulative presence and subtle variations.

Sentimental is an ongoing body of work based on repeated drawings of my daughter. Drawings are made wet-on-wet, disrupting the act of capturing likeness. Repetition is used precisely as a process of variation. Images emerge, dissolve and reform through the interaction of control and chance. The title reclaims sentiment as a mode of attention rather than nostalgia, reflecting on attachment, change and the impossibility of holding a person still.

Dark Holding

The residency marked an important moment in the project Dark Holding, bringing together a substantial selection of this material investigation with Whitby jet. Seeing these works in dialogue with one another confirmed Dark Holding as a central area of ongoing research and reinforced its role as the foundation for future developments, which includes an exhibition at Pannett Art Gallery in 2028.

This process was particularly important for the new piece Facets, where testing different configurations helped resolve ongoing questions around presentation and confirmed the final form of the work. The residency allowed these works to move beyond a period of experimentation, revealing new connections between drawing, material and installation.

We Give The Rain Many Names

The residency provided an opportunity to display my rain drawings, a series that began during a residency in Crinan, on the west coast of Scotland, in September 2025. We Give the Rain Many Names are made by coating paper with ultramarine calligraphy ink, allowing them to dry and then exposing them to the falling rain, occupying a space between observation and collaboration with natural processes.