Leap - Large Edition #1 of 4 Photograph

My artworks demonstrate a career-long commitment to experimentation. Often taking the body as inspiration I work with traditional and novel materials using many of my own processes. Not content with simply making beautiful things, there is often a socio-political agenda in my work, a result of my life as an activist as a young man. I am a committed career artist who has been working continually since graduating from art school in 1991. Now working from my studios in Brighton and Florida, I'm obsessively exploring my interest in the human condition. I'm fascinated by the power of emotionally loaded objects and how to lend that power to my artworks. I'm interested in reprographic processes, dovetailing casting and experimental photography into my working practice. I also like to use humour to break down barriers and encourage public engagement with tricky subjects. No subject is too taboo. When I find something that obsesses me I have to pick at that thread until I can tease out what I am trying to say. I'm no stranger to controversy. I am concentrating at the moment of figurative works in bronze, steel, resins and animal hides as well as experimental photographic portraits. I also continue to work on my Objets d'Aft series in which whimsy and nonsense are the driving factors behind these altered found objects. In development as well are a series of large, long outcome assemblage projects that will see fruition in the next few years. My 2012 solo exhibition on Cork Street featured over forty pieces focusing on beauty and society's obsession with the physical self. Here I debuted The Great Wall of Vagina sculpture. It next went on display at the Triennale Design Museum in Milan. I also launched my Physical Photography series of experimental, photographic, portrait collages. These unusual, beautiful portraits focus on personal expressions of sensuality and sexuality within the confines of societal and religious expectations and pressures. Choosing to largely self-represent due to my high public profile, I have clients such as The Royal Family of Liechtenstein, flying me around the world to complete personal or site-specific artworks. What fun! Numerous appearances by me and my work in the press, in books and on TV & radio around the world have done much to boost my public profile, giving me the opportunity to spread my philosophy to a wide audience and engage with the public far from my local area.