ABOUT

Looking around my grandmother’s living room for the final time compelled me to root my art practice as a love letter to my working class Black British Caribbean heritage. I remember the precious figurines in her display cabinet, a kinetic Lord’s Supper painting and the feeling of running my hand along the textured wallpaper as I left her home.

Playing with the themes of nostalgia, identity, and belonging, I embrace the multiplicity of time and place in both English inner cities and the lush hills and rivers of Jamaica. My work is layered with my ancestral legacy and memories alongside the realities of the present day, as a second-generation immigrant. I use paint and collage to create figurative works that create intimate moments and encounters. The people within them are drawn from a pool of loved ones, myself and my community, alongside folklore characters, traditional mass carnival and songs handed down through generations.

From my studio in South London, I create works anchored in a materiality that emphasises texture, holding space for joy, reflection and pride in my identity. I combine gestural paint strokes, smooth chrome ink and text extracted from conversations and lyrics with surfaces of vintage objects and materials typically found in the iconic interiors of the Windrush Generation. Their homes offered a space of safety, expression and a connection with ‘back home’. Introducing the tactile patterns and textures of vintage mid-century wallpapers, plastic carpet protectors and decorative trinkets allows me to make sense of my life story, while giving the viewer an opportunity to connect with their own memories.

My background as a Fashion Stylist with a BA in Fashion design, not only explains the importance of the figure in my work but the significance of style, colour and pattern in cementing my pieces in time and culture. This allows me to shift the focus from the clothing to the sitter, flattening the garments with blocks of colour or collaged wallpaper.

Combining these facets has allowed me to create a body of works on wallpaper, wallpapered canvas and vintage objects, in a variety of scales, from a palm-sized bamboo coaster to a 2 meter high wallpaper scroll. My practice that bridges past and present, opening a dialogue about displacement, resilience, and the evolving concept of home.