CHROMA TALES

Artist statement

My creative practice is driven by a desire to respond to found objects and to question what these objects can tell us about ourselves. In my Botanical Inquiry series, I photographed commonplace plants found on the street and presented them as remarkable specimens of life force.

In my new work, Chroma Tales, I’ve studied a selection of trophies sourced from my local community which celebrate athletic achievements from football and tennis to jazz ballet. These forsaken trophies usually include a figure posed in an archetypal way denoting the sport that they represent.

I’ve removed the figures from their structures and modified them by cutting or grinding away their obvious sporting references. By arranging them into unexpected compositions on a set lit with highly saturated light, their monochromatic bodies become tinted with colour palettes designed to further defy their sporting origins and introduce another layer of expressiveness to their form.

The images reference moments in popular culture – the kaleidoscopic optimism of 1930s musicals, the emotion-provoking colour palettes of vintage animation and the seductive artifice of 1980s airbrush illustration. This highly stylised and polished aesthetic is achieved in-camera without digital compositing or graphics tools.

By changing their context, the accepted meaning of the figures and their gestures becomes negotiable. I’ve used them to express narratives based on life experiences that are formative, but not necessarily particular to me.

Image details

Limited edition prints of the series are printed on the matte textured surface of Hahnemühle German Etching paper. They are offered in three sizes:

95 cm x 73.5 cm, edition of 6

51 cm x 39.5 cm, edition of 6

35.5 cm x 27.5 cm, edition of 6