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Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Acrylic and graphite on canvas
122 x 92 cm
2026
My practice explores the systems we construct to protect ourselves from uncertainty: rituals, superstitions, repeated phrases, numbers and private rules that offer an illusion of control over things we cannot control.
In my ongoing body of work, Systems of Protection, I draw on personal experience alongside inherited folklore and familiar cultural symbols. I am interested in the point at which an arbitrary action or object becomes charged with consequence: a solitary magpie becomes an omen; a particular number feels safe; a repeated phrase becomes a form of reassurance. These systems may appear irrational from the outside, yet from within they can feel entirely logical and necessary.
Working primarily with acrylic, oil pastel and graphite, I use layering, repetition, erasure and partially obscured marks to echo the processes behind the rituals themselves. Images and text are repeatedly constructed, disrupted and overwritten, allowing earlier decisions to remain visible beneath the surface.
Increasingly, I am interested in the boundary between private and socially accepted systems of protection: between superstition, ritual, reassurance and belief. Rather than attempting to resolve these distinctions, the work asks why we create structures of meaning around uncertainty, and what happens when the systems we rely upon fail to make us feel safe.
Acrylic and graphite on canvas
122 x 92 cm
2026
My practice explores the systems we construct to protect ourselves from uncertainty: rituals, superstitions, repeated phrases, numbers and private rules that offer an illusion of control over things we cannot control.
In my ongoing body of work, Systems of Protection, I draw on personal experience alongside inherited folklore and familiar cultural symbols. I am interested in the point at which an arbitrary action or object becomes charged with consequence: a solitary magpie becomes an omen; a particular number feels safe; a repeated phrase becomes a form of reassurance. These systems may appear irrational from the outside, yet from within they can feel entirely logical and necessary.
Working primarily with acrylic, oil pastel and graphite, I use layering, repetition, erasure and partially obscured marks to echo the processes behind the rituals themselves. Images and text are repeatedly constructed, disrupted and overwritten, allowing earlier decisions to remain visible beneath the surface.
Increasingly, I am interested in the boundary between private and socially accepted systems of protection: between superstition, ritual, reassurance and belief. Rather than attempting to resolve these distinctions, the work asks why we create structures of meaning around uncertainty, and what happens when the systems we rely upon fail to make us feel safe.