Above:‘Untitled 1’, hand embroidery in thread on fabric, plinth (painted mdf)
76 x 23.5 x 21.5cm
Below: ‘Untitled 2’, detail, 18.5 x 22 x 7.5cm
Below right: ‘Untitled 3’, hand embroidery in thread on fabric, 18.5 x 21cm

For a piece to work it must be, in some way, independent of me, there has to be something beyond my intention, a compromised or degraded authorship, a lack of control. Monoprinting for instance combines the immediacy of direct drawing with the unpredictable aspects of the printing process and the reversal of the drawn image. A tension is formed between the control I choose to relinquish and that which, ultimately, I retain over the work.

In the monoprints and the sewn works, fragments of geometry further intrude on the sense, or the certainty, of the images. In the confines of these small works, the two elements, landscape and distinct geometry, cannot help but appear to relate to one another, yet any connection, any certainty, is ultimately evaded.

The concepts of drawing touched upon by my work are closely related to issues around meaning and language, particularly ideas of inference, potential, lack, loss, excess and control. I court a sense of intimate scale, of intensive study or obsessive observation. Drawing is, for me, tied to representation but, like language, always to some degree abstract, removed from its supposed subject – it is both more and less than that which it figures.

Images of landscapes, in particular palm trees, tropical forests and, more recently, mountains, have fed the work for some time now – in one sense a relatively arbitrary starting point turned obsession, in another a link to the broad traditions of landscape, botanical studies, postcards and snapshots, loading the images with a sense of awkward familiarity.