In the Forest Garden
‘Rural Idyll’
Inner Landscapes
Absent Presence
Trace
Photomontage
Performative Drawing
Act of Listening
About
@hortus_silvam
Ongoing areas of interest include: quiet activism challenging the perception of ‘rural' in an East Anglian landscape, where wildlife, industry and science intersect and elide; the absent presence of objects that weigh heavy with personal histories; the musical dichotomy between the written and the performed.
Led by process, my approach is reflexive and responsive, subjective and observational, allowing humour and the absurd to interact with tension and disquiet, blurring boundaries between the sights, sounds and smells of the real, the imagined and the remembered, as they coalesce with the passing of time.
Dialogue with my Father: the piano, screened in the group show In Proximity at Norwich Castle Art Gallery 2025-2026. A solo show in 2025 at Project DIVFUSE in London screened a 30 minute selection of moving image work on a theme of domesticity. My work in sound has been broadcast on Framework Radio/Resonance FM.
Solo Exhibitions
2025 Dialogues, DIVFUSE Film Archive No.1, Project DIVFUSE, London UK
Group Shows
2026 Dialogues with my Father screened at In Proximity, Group Show, Norwich Museum and Art Gallery, UK
1994 Two Nudes; Two Nudes, projection Ruskin School, Oxford University
1994 Notation Drawings, photomontange on paper, Warsaw, Poland
1994 Nude Against the Light, performance, Reichstag, Berlin
1994 Intangible Distance; Nude Combing Her Hair, performance, Long Room, New College, Oxford
1993 Exhibition of Drawing and Painting, Group Show, work on paper, University College, Oxford
1993 Disembodied; Nude at the Window, performance, Group Show, Bermondsey, London
Collections
2025 Sound and Moving Image Collection, British Library Sound Archive, London
Sound
2025 Ephemeral Things Digital Album, limited edition CD
2023 Drawing Digital Album
2023 Hiding selected for Murmuration#3 - Species
2022 The Caged and the Free Digital Album
2022 Dialogue with my Father: Now He is Gone
2022 /prə(ʊ)ˈkrastɪneɪt/ Digital Album
2022 (in)visible Digital Album
In Residence
2022 Murmuration#3 - Species, Scotland
2006 What will you be when you grow up? mural mosaic
Community Network Fund, London
2002 Video Portraits Year 7-8 students, digital video 5’, London
1998 Transience; Nude in an Interior objects, performance, 16mm film with sound, London
Curator
2007 The Rhythm of Life an inclusive community art exhibition, Croydon Clocktower
Co-founder
2013-15 Make it! a CIC offering art workshops to adults with learning disabilities
Education
2000 PGDip Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector
1998 MA Enterprise & Management of the Creative Arts, London College of Communication
1997 PGDip Law, BBP Law School, London
1994 PGDip Teaching English as a Foreign Language, London
1994 16mm Film Workshop, London Filmmakers Coop
1994 BA Fine Art (Ist Class Hons), Ruskin School of Art, Oxford University, Oxford
1990 Fine Art Foundation Course, West Yorkshire
Training
2024 Soil Chromatography, Hannah Fletcher, Land Art
2022 Phytography, Karel Doing
2015 Forest Garden Design, Martin Crawford Agroforestry Research Trust, Devon
2011-2014 Woodcarving, Robin Wood, Edale
2010 Willow Weaving, Mary Butcher, V&A London
2009 Bookbinding, Camberwell College of the Arts, London
Membership
a-n Artist Membership
Literary Executor
2014- Custodian of the literary estate of composer and writer Patric Standford
Through the 1990s and early 2000s, I stopped showing work while continuing to develop my art practice embracing the emergence of portable, digital video and sound recording tools for creating moving image, while living without a studio in London. During this time I had a child; briefly worked for Book Works (1995) and Wise Music Group (1996); studied PGDip Law (1997) to better understand a personal injury claim arising from a road accident; taught art in the Lifelong Learning Sector (from 2000); initiated local, community funded Artist in Residence projects including Video Portraits (2002) and a large scale mosaic mural (2005); curated The Rhythm of Life art exhibition at Croydon Clocktower (2006); home educated my son (2008-2011); co-founded Make it! a CIC offering art workshops to adults with learning disabilities (2013-15); custodian to the literary estate of composer and writer Patric Standford (2014); moved to rural Suffolk and set up an edible forest garden following Martin Crawford’s principles at the Agroforestry Research Trust, Devon (2015).