Portfolio of Creations
Woodsorrel Garden Gallery
The Woodsorrel Garden Gallery sits in the centre of the formal garden on Woodsorrel, my Animal Crossing island. I use this space to host exhibitions of installation art which have exclusive opening nights.
The most recent exhibition, O Joy, can be visited via Dream Suite at DA- 1947-1429-2561. You can find more information about the gallery on this website.
Funeral of Stars
Exhibited at the Woodsorrel Garden Gallery as part of the 2020 exhibition ‘Good Night’.
ECR
In 2017 in spent approximately 30 days either on or waiting for trains. So much time spent waiting yet in transit. I think I’m still waiting for a train now, waiting for that feeling of being on the way somewhere. This is that feeling. Exhibited at the Woodsorrel Garden Gallery as part of the 2020 exhibition ‘Good Night’.
A recreation of “Sea of Time’98” by Tatsuo Miyajima, as seen at Naoshima in May 2019
“This old house called “Kadoya,” built about 200 years ago, was restored using Japanese plaster, smoked cedar board, and traditional roof tiles. Miyajima built a water pool inside the house, and put LED devices which counts from 1 to 9 in the water. He called for local residents to participate in his “time-setting” workshop, and had 125 people to adjust the speed of each counter.”
See You Next Week?
I miss you, my friends. I’ve sat with under these beautiful trees with you in Animal Crossing, beside our picnic that we cannot eat. It’s nice, but it’s not the same. I long to eat M&S picnic snacks (sweaty in their plastic packets) with you on a cloudy day in a scrubby park full of giddy children and lurking pigeons.
Exhibited at the Woodsorrel Garden Gallery as part of the 2020 exhibition ‘Good Night’.
Processional Way
Exhibited at the Woodsorrel Garden Gallery as part of the 2020 exhibition ‘O Joy’.
Seeking Joy
It can be hard to find joy in life at the moment. Since March I’ve been angry, worried, and depressed by turns. Some days it feels like there’s bleakness everywhere you look. Animal Crossing has been something of a refuge in this time; it’s a nice game, sure, but the real appeal has been the friends playing it with me. Although it’s sometimes hard to see the good things around me, my friends bring me joy and are always there when I remember to turn to them. Exhibited at the Woodsorrel Garden Gallery as part of the 2020 exhibition ‘O Joy’.
My Idea of Fun
A few weeks ago I should have been stood in one of Yayoi Kusama’s exquisite Infinity Rooms with a friend. It wasn’t to be. We may yet end up there, but in the meantime I felt inspired by Kusama’s polka dots to create this room. It is a tribute to the joy I find in chaotic bold colour and sound—particularly that of jaunty Wurlitzers and fairground organs. It is recommended that you enlist other gallery visitors for the full effect of this room. The best fun is fun shared with others. Exhibited at the Woodsorrel Garden Gallery as part of the 2020 exhibition ‘O Joy’.
Albatross
Albatross is a sensory pairing of poetry and presence in VR. Participants sit in a small boat on a choppy ocean listening to as much of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ as they can stand. This was exhibited at the Feral Vector arts festival in 2018, where participants were additionally directed to sit upon a rocking stool during the experience.
Poetic Places
Poetic Places was a free app for Android and iOS devices, developed whilst I was Creative Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the British Library, a role funded by CreativeWorks London. Poetic Places brought poetic depictions of place into the physical world, helping users to encounter poems and literature in the locations described. Promoting serendipitous psychogeographic discovery, Poetic Places utilised geolocation services and push notifications to let users know when they happen upon a place depicted in literature. Poetic Places aspired to give a renewed perception of place and to bring literature into everyday life in unexpected moments. The app was live for 3 years and was downloaded over 10,000 times globally.
Odds & Ends
Odds & Ends is an unfinished experiment in digital literature, tying shifting memories to representations of real knick-knacks. Sometimes objects on the desk change and sometimes the associated memory changes, so readers are unlikely to find everything. One of the core themes of the experience is honesty—everything I’ve put into it is completely true. It’s been difficult to write at times. Some of the memories included: the first family holiday after my mum died, inheriting a box of fingernails, eating fresh fish in Mongolia.
