Buttonhooks & Brushes
photo etching with silver leaf
(size: 60cm x 115cm) £360
Portrait photo etching
(Size: 52cm 76cm) £220
Forks in a Drawer photo etching
(size: 48cm x 38cm) £120
Archives
Button Hooks and Brushes
This group of images examines the notions of memory and loss through an exploration of the relationship
between intimate objects. I have juxtaposed the familar souvenirs we become tied to in order to represent the
personality that is imprinted on them. I was inspired by objects that we hold dear that are left behind as a visual
memory of the people that owned them and that often continue to hold the character of the user.
Portrait
The inspiration for the etching 'Portrait' came when my aunty Liz died suddenly in 2000. Following her funeral
I took a spoon from her kitchen drawer. I wanted to record my memory of her and of other females who had
played siginificant roles throughout my life. Spoons not only characterise the female form but are also reminders of
the comfort that food and family provide.
In the portrait they are, from left to right:
1. My mother. My mainstay and the world's greatest tea-drinker.
2. Aunty Sally. Second to my mother, my closest guardian and back-tickler.
3. and 7. Great Auntie Georgie. Nomadic traveller, nursing from India to
Hollywood over 40 years.
4. Grandma. Matriarch of the family, always cooking, humming- the hub of
family life with meals to match.
5. Great Auntie Jessie. Maiden aunt who used this spoon to stir hundreds of
Christmas puddings in an enormous earthenware bowl.
8. Aunty Jane. Jam spoon. Wouldn't be seen dead with a knife in the jam pot!
9. Aunty Liz. Always kind and generous.
10. Gran. Bone-handled spoon and the sole survivor of the chip pan fire of '83.
11 and 6. Anthea. Mother-in-law. Aka 'pudding queen' and treacle tart confidante.
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