"Shot Down In Flames" Sculpture

I have been working with found objects throughout my artistic career, more recently with found plastic objects and fragments. I love the versatility, the intensity of colour, industrial neutrality, and most of all, the way they record their histories over time and space. An interest in collecting and exploring the landscape eventually merged into multiples and site specific art installations. I collect and manipulate discarded plastics of all kinds to create sculptures using adhesives, rivets, cutting and slotting together. Sources of materials include beaches, the countryside, cities, any place where discarded plastic objects are dumped or reappear. The hidden histories of objects, sometimes secret journeys of identical objects towards inevitable individualism fascinate me. Though the sea for example identical objects transform into unique pieces, distinguished now by colour, texture, age. Or perhaps a random experience finding a series of items on a walk through the streets produces an almost surreal motive for a piece. I invent rules for processes as I walk and collect. I record and manipulate the objects I am drawn to work with as I am collecting them, keeping my choices of making processes open to influence from both my thoughts and the landscape they occupy. Often a coincidence will lead to a strong narrative guide for a piece. A found object may reference something historical, political, geographic by its form, its location, its condition.