brief histories
Casting the archaeology of the everyday
RESEARCH
My relief work explores archaeology, material memory and surface. Working with clay, plaster and Jesmonite. I use casting to capture the imprint of both natural and everyday objects — leaves, petals, textiles, fragments — things that quietly hold their own histories.
Early experiments such as Brief Histories (2017) showed how garments could become almost archaeological, their weaves and edges preserved with fossil-like clarity. This established a language of surface that continues into my current plaster casts. I love the surprises this work provided, both with humour and a sincerity. They feel honest.
These new reliefs merge botanical, geological and domestic traces into hybrid forms — part artefact, part skin. I use colour and layering to deepen or disrupt what the cast reveals, treating each small panel as a study for larger, more considered works.
Across drawing, casting and painting, I’m drawn to the moment when an imprint feels newly alive, as if retrieved from another time — the ordinary transformed into something quietly resonant.
