Control(led) Collage

My experience growing up on a council estate with my mother and brother was complex with a never-ending dynamic strain. The absence of my father since the age of three and my mother’s waves of declining mental health would be the source of all her suffering, in psychoanalytical terms. While primarily exploring personal anxieties and fragilities of the human condition, the subject of ‘home’ is a universal one. The bedroom was my sanctuary and although scenes are autobiographical, there is surely at least one scene one can identify with. As a child I became fascinated with the house, dollhouses or creating replicas of existing rooms. Being trapped within its childhood memory and symbolism, enables me to physically relive and process. Both calmness and chaos were experienced at home, yet I do look back with some fondness when creating layered paper collages of my bedroom. The meditative act of creating repeated motifs has become obsessively therapeutic, enabling a sense of control in an overwhelmingly chaotic world. When remembering an oppressive and restrictive household it provides explanation when observing the need for a sense of control. The collages, paintings and sculptures tap into our consciousness and offer an understanding the power of permitting ourselves to be vulnerable.