In the Forest Garden
A Rural Idyll
Inner Landscapes
Absent Presence
Trace
Photomontage
Performative Drawing
Act of Listening
About
@hortus_silvam
Ongoing work includes: quiet activism in the sustainable Forest Garden Project, creating resources within an edible, biodiverse, wildlife rich habitat; unearthing the concept of ‘rural’ in the surrounding East Anglian landscape, where the wild and industrial intersect and elide; responding to inner landscapes uncovered through the absent presence of objects that weigh heavy with personal histories; exploring the musical dichotomy between the written and the performed.
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', is a short video work currently screening in the group show 'In Proximity' at Norwich Castle Art Gallery. 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 and been selected for collection by the British Library Sound and Moving Image Archive (ongoing since 2024).
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
2015 Forest Garden Design, Martin Crawford Agroforestry Research Trust, Devon
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 16mm Film, London Filmmakers Coop
1994 BA Fine Art (Ist Class Hons), Ruskin School of Art, Oxford University, Oxford
1990 Fine Art Foundation Course, West Yorkshire
Membership
a-n Artist Membership
Outpost Gallery, Norwich
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 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; gained PGDip Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector (2000) to work as a teacher; initiated local, community funded Artist in Residence projects in London including 'Video Portraits' (2002) and 'What will you be when you grow up?' (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); completed the Forest Gardening / Food Forests Design Course with Martin Crawford (2015).