This embroidery was inspired by a tweet I posted way back in February of this year simply whilst enduring a mundane day ensconced within a very beige office earning my keep. Having spent most of the day staring at spreadsheets on my computer monitor I began to dream of an escape from the monotony of this grey reality.

This work reflects the desires of those who sit ‘chained’ to their desks day-in, day-out whilst dreaming of an escape from their day-to-day existence. These dreams may be fanciful imaginary adventures to far away lands or more humble dreams of a weekend away in a great British B&B by the sea.

The work is hand embroidered using cotton thread and human hair on an old cotton pillowcase. Pastel colours were used to for their aesthetic association with dreamlike imagery whilst human hair was used for both its role as a signifier of memory and for the abject quality that it acquires when separated from the body. That abject quality is something many of us may have experienced if all but briefly, for example, when staying overnight in a hotel or B&B and finding a stray hair in amongst the bed sheets.

Media: cotton thread on canvas/linen

1 – 5 Circle of Life II (Black) 2012
6 – 8 Circle of Life III (Rainbow) 2012
9 – 13 Circle of Life I (White) 2012

Dimensions: 210 x 297mm

1 -3 Robot Chicken Omlet Attack
4 -7 Forever Young Eternal Love

Year: 2012

Dimensions: 500 x 700mm

Year: 2012

1 – 3: Please Keep Your Gods on a Leash at All Times
4 – 6: Do Not Pick The Petals Off Thunder Flowers or You Will Get Struck by Lightning
7 – 9: Always Remember to Wash Your Hands After Cooking With Chilli and Before Masturbating

These three marionettes were created for an exhibition at St Donat’s Arts Centre as a part of the Beyond the Border Storytelling Festival 2012. The works are inspired by three of the tales collected by the Brothers Grimm; Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and the lesser know Jorinda and Joringel.

These mixed media assembleages were made in collaboration with the fairy tale illustrator Layla Holzer.

Dimensions: Approximately 20cm sq.

Year: 2012

The attached works are taken from my body of unicorn studies. The work draws upon the historical significance of the symbol of the unicorn and re-appropriates it for the twenty first century.

The symbol of the unicorn has long been associated with sex, reproduction and rebirth. We regularly hear complaints from certain quarters about ways in which contemporary society is oversexed; particularly with regard to the way in which contemporary celebrity culture trades on sexuality in ways that some might say is crude and demeaning.

With this in mind I have rescued the unicorn from the wishy-washy airbrushed new age aesthetic with which it is commonly associated and exploited its historic symbolic associations with our sexuality.

The old tales of the unicorn regularly tell of its capture by hunters who lure it into the open with a young virgin girl. This point of reference has provided the inspiration for this series of small embroideries which show the captured unicorn. The works draw references from images of sexual bondage games which represent both the capture of the unicorn and the sexuality of the symbol of the unicorn.

The work are comprised of a series of seven panels which are hand embroidered with cotton thread on linen using split stitch.

Exhibitions:
‘Bodies’, Cultivate, Vyner Street, London 31 May – 13 June 2012
‘Moko’, Angus Street, Roath 16 – 20 October 2012

www.unicorn-porn.com

Materials: Cotton thread and Prefabricated Dolls

Dimensions: Variable

Year: 2012

Images:
1-3 Clare
4-6 Emma
7-10 Lady Violet

Dimensions: approximately 1.5 metres tall

Year: 2012

The name ‘Invictus’ is taken from a character in 120 Days of Sodom by the Marquis de Sade:

Invictus, was so named because, no matter what he did, his erection was perpetual, was furnished with an engine eleven inches long and seven and fifteen-sixteenths inches around. Greater ones, who had difficulty stiffening, had been turned away to make room for him who, regardless of the quantity of discharges produced in a day, rose heavenward at the slightest touch.

The Marquis de Sade. 120 Days of Sodom (or the School of Libertinism), France 1905

Invictus: Unicorn Film Test Clip from Sp:ke Dennis on Vimeo.

Materials: Synthetic Fur, Foam Core, Linen, Clay, Acrylic Paint and Leatherette