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The contradictory forces in the journey of life. Cuckoo spit is the white froth found on young stems and leaves of plants in late spring and early summer. It is secreted by the immature stages of sap-sucking insects known as froghoppers.

RIVER MAN

A mythic figure fishes in and beyond time’s flow. Vague allusion to Nick Drake’s song

of the same title from his album, Five Leaves Left (1969).

DRYAD: A LIVING REQUIEM

In Greek myth, a dryad is a tree nymph or wood spirit. A tale of bullying, punishment and child abuse – and the redemptive courage to break free.

LOST

A passing glimpse of someone once known adrift in the traffic of life.

MADEINUSA

Inspired by the Peruvian films of Claudia Llosa, especially The Milk of Sorrow (2009).

It references the savagery of men’s wars in South America and the effect on its women.

THRAWN DOROTHEA

A woman unable to forgive.

MOON PRINCESS: A DARK ROMANCE

Originally a short film that failed to find finance. Converted into a tale of lost

yearning and desire.

PHYSIC: A EULOGY

Written to honour the memory of the late nineteenth century Dr John Fawsett, buried

in an unassuming grave in St. Mary’s churchyard, Horncastle, Lincolnshire. The

practice at the time of his death of segregating people in areas of the churchyard on moral ground was repugnant to him, so he arranged for himself and his family to be placed amongst those less fortunate.

PAINTED LADY

My mother as an ageing representative of 1940s glamour.

REBIRTH

A gossamer world compiled from a BBC list of the ten most beautiful words in English.

BRILLIANT TREES: A VALEDICTION

An insistent attempt to question and piece together a broken relationship, whose memory will always shine. The title is taken from David Sylvian’s first solo album

of the same name (1984).

PEACE BE . . . A ROUND

The rhythm and cycle of life.

Follies

LAMB

Interpretation of messy gender relationships.

HYBRIDS OF PLANTS AND GHOSTS

Title a quote from Friedrick Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra (1883-5): ‘Even the wisest among you is only a conflict and hybrid of plant and ghost’. The need for the

re-evaluation of values, especially human beings as a superior, rational animal. After

a relation was found dead in his garden after two weeks, a speculation on nature’s rearrangement and recycling of life.

FEEDING THE SYSTEM

Developed from a newspaper article concerning a court case where an anorexic girl

was told by a judge that her opinion regarding her placement carried no weight.

DISTANT FIGURES

Relationship breakup – by numbers.

ALL HALLOWS

Emotional pain in a haunted seasonal setting.

THIEF

Triggered by a misspelling on a poster, and the relativity and irretrievability of time.

OF MOUSE AND MEN

The reality of underpaid work behind the façade of fun with an obvious target. The

title is a reference to Robert Burns’ poem ‘To a Mouse’ and the tyranny of man, and

how both mice and costumed mice are often treated.

TIDIED AWAY

The hypocrisy of pious behaviour concerning life’s natural functions.

TRANSLATIONS FROM A FOREIGN PLACE

What it is to be an alien abroad and in your head: geographically and psychologically. Taken from a letter of gratitude once the traveller had returned home – in both senses.

BALANCED

Recalling a cuckoo clock/barometer in my childhood bedroom and the small figures

that emerged from it to reveal atmospheric pressure.

THE PEASANTS' TALE: everemoore

A Geoffrey Chaucer parody of serious intent: the historic ownership of land.

SIX DEGREES OF NICETY

History of the shifting meanings behind ‘nice’, combined with the idea that

all people are six or fewer connections away from one another.

Alcoves

ELENA DOES THE LOTTERY

The cost of taking a gamble on a relationship and the possible consequences. The character of Elena and her blue pills – although differently contextualised – taken

from Andrei Zvyagintsev’s film Elena (2011).

A WOMAN LAY DYING - for Anna

The dance of a supposed suicide pact in a setting of dutiful Polish Catholicism.

A FALL APART

Surrealist burnout and roadside breakdown – occasioned by a lost love.

GALE

An emotional distancing adrift in a seaside resort with the accompanying sympathy

of the weather.

JUST THE WIND

Racism and prejudice in Hungary inspired by Benedek Fliegauf’s film, Just The Wind (2012), itself based on true events.

BUTTERFLIES
A sketch of confusion – with fragile hopes in retreat.

LUCIA
A successful attachment to an inner child.

SPRING SONG
The despair of neighbours and war; resilience - and the possibility of hope.

ENTRY AND DEPARTURE
A life that failed to take off: grounded by the post-memory of his beginnings and his mother’s past.

DAISIES AND BUTTERCUPS: A TESTIMONY
Inspired by a documentary and based on the memories of Sieglinde Kenzler about Germany’s ‘wolf children’ (‘Wolfskinder’): German children orphaned after the Second World War, who ran away to live in the woods and swamps of East Prussia and Lithuania. Russians were told at the time not to take in the ‘fascist children’. The numbers can’t be estimated accurately, but ran into thousands.

BRIDGE
Written in regard to a memorable all-night encounter spent with a tramp in London.

TRANSITIVE TABLEAU
An alleged ghostly childhood experience one night in my grandparents’ living room (doubling as a bedroom) with my mother. The incident was reported in the local
paper.

KÖNIGIN
Recounted by an elderly émigré, who shared her story with me one afternoon in the museum of her sitting room.

LADYBIRD LADYBIRD
Concerns the generations of women in my family and their relationships with each other. To all mothers and daughters everywhere.

ROSE
A damaged character actor from my past, who continues to walk the boards of my memory.

PAINTER
A picture of newfound contentment.

EXCAVATIONS
A tale of the release of repression after a complex relationship enacted by a widow.

Thresholds

SONG OF THE EARTH
A mythic bird’s flight of hope.

OH, WHISPER
A romantic variant on M. R. James’s short story, ‘Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to
you, My Lad’ (1904).

HIDE AND SEEK
Originally a short story written in adolescence, developed further after watching Andrey Zvyagintsev’s film Loveless (2017).

DISSOLVING WALLS (7th Nov.)
A composite of personal and reported events coalesced into an individual’s distress and possible furtherance.

DARK HORSES
My life narrative and early relationship with my parents condensed into an imaginative journey of stark images and layered tones.

THE MOTH
A tale of bravery in the natural world and the world of the anxious.

I THINK OF SNOW
Variant of Conrad Aikens’ short story, ‘Silent Snow, Secret Snow’ (1934), combined with watching a documentary about a prosecution attorney’s attempt at rationalizing events in a trial. How language attempts to establish identity and relativises reality and truth.

FORGOTTEN MEMORIES
Taken from a newspaper article about the emotional effect the witnessing of executions had on an American state official.

MISS HAYMES
Past events and defiant denial. And the distance and suspicions of neighbours.

A WELCOME SIGHT . . . !
Image and title taken from a painting by Alan King (1946-2014). Atmosphere taken from the stories of William Trevor.

SEEDING
The complexity and definition of terrorism in an interplay of confusion, revenge and participation triggered by a newspaper article of bemused incomprehension.

GARDEN OF EARTHEN DELIGHTS Title references Hieronymus Bosch’s depiction of heaven and hell. Recounts the witnessing of a psychotic episode – and its denial.

INCARNATION: A NOCTURNE A love letter to my mother, acknowledging a shared inheritance and sensibility.

BEING VIRGINIA Written in 1989, a re-enactment of Virginia Woolf’s final walk and suicide. And a celebration of her aesthetic. A major influence.

SNOWMAN

TOMMY The pain and confusion of dementia. And the further pain for the carer. Inspired by and dedicated to my daughter, Danielle.

FOUNDLING Dedicated to the kindness of strangers: those who attend funerals for the departed who have no mourners. They represent humanity’s hope.

AUBADE'S GIFT: A FABLE OF FAITH A creative resurrection of hope and belief in a difficult world.

VISIT A study in loneliness – and family misunderstanding.

MIRROR MIRROR Vulnerability and the donning of social masks.

AND EXQUISITE GREEN AIR The joy of being a child before the tyranny of adult rationality develops. With passing references to Noam Chomsky, Andre Breton and Mira Rothenberg.

LARK Acceptance and renewal after a lost romance, with a nod to past visits to English churches and the beauty of the English countryside.

CUCKOO SAP

JUST THE WIND

BUTTERFLIES A sketch of confusion – with fragile hopes in retreat.

LUCIA A successful attachment to an inner child.

SPRING SONG The despair of neighbours and war; resilience - and the possibility of hope.

ENTRY AND DEPARTURE A life that failed to take off: grounded by the post-memory of his beginnings and his mother’s past.

BRIDGE Written in regard to a memorable all-night encounter spent with a tramp in London.

TRANSITIVE TABLEAU An alleged ghostly childhood experience one night in my grandparents’ living room (doubling as a bedroom) with my mother. The incident was reported in the local paper.

​KÖNIGIN Recounted by an elderly émigré, who shared her story with me one afternoon in the museum of her sitting room.

LADYBIRD LADYBIRD Concerns the generations of women in my family and their relationships with each other. To all mothers and daughters everywhere.

ROSE A damaged character actor from my past, who continues to walk the boards of my memory.

PAINTER A picture of newfound contentment.

EXCAVATIONS A tale of the release of repression after a complex relationship enacted by a widow.

SONG OF THE EARTH A mythic bird’s flight of hope.

OH, WHISPER A romantic variant on M. R. James’s short story, ‘Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to you, My Lad’ (1904).

HIDE AND SEEK Originally a short story written in adolescence, developed further after watching Andrey Zvyagintsev’s film Loveless (2017).

DISSOLVING WALLS (7th Nov.) A composite of personal and reported events coalesced into an individual’s distress and possible furtherance.

DARK HORSES My life narrative and early relationship with my parents condensed into an imaginative journey of stark images and layered tones.

THE MOTH A tale of bravery in the natural world and the world of the anxious.

I THINK OF SNOW Variant of Conrad Aikens’ short story, ‘Silent Snow, Secret Snow’ (1934), combined with watching a documentary about a prosecution attorney’s attempt at rationalizing events in a trial. How language attempts to establish identity and relativises reality and truth.

FORGOTTEN MEMORIES​ Taken from a newspaper article about the emotional effect the witnessing of executions had on an American state official.

MISS HAYMES Past events and defiant denial. And the distance and suspicions of neighbours.

A WELCOME SIGHT . . . ! Image and title taken from a painting by Alan King (1946-2014). Atmosphere taken from the stories of William Trevor.

SEEDING The complexity and definition of terrorism in an interplay of confusion, revenge and participation triggered by a newspaper article of bemused incomprehension.

DAWN: A Celebration The beginning and ending of an art project – and life.

GARDEN OF EARTHEN DELIGHTS
Title references Hieronymus Bosch’s depiction of heaven and hell. Recounts the
witnessing of a psychotic episode – and its denial.

INCARNATION: A NOCTURNE
A love letter to my mother, acknowledging a shared inheritance and sensibility.

BEING VIRGINIA
Written in 1989, a re-enactment of Virginia Woolf’s final walk and suicide. And a celebration of her aesthetic. A major influence.

TOMMY
The pain and confusion of dementia. And the further pain for the carer. Inspired
by and dedicated to my daughter, Danielle.

FOUNDLING
Dedicated to the kindness of strangers: those who attend funerals for the departed who have no mourners. They represent humanity’s hope.

AUBADE'S GIFT: A FABLE OF FAITH
A creative resurrection of hope and belief in a difficult world.

VISIT
A study in loneliness – and family misunderstanding.

MIRROR MIRROR
Vulnerability and the donning of social masks.

AND EXQUISITE GREEN AIR
The joy of being a child before the tyranny of adult rationality develops. With passing references to Noam Chomsky, Andre Breton and Mira Rothenberg.

LARK
Acceptance and renewal after a lost romance, with a nod to past visits to English churches and the beauty of the English countryside.