My practice explores folklore and storytelling through a feminist and post-colonial lens. I am interested in how feminine archetypes and figures such as Medusa and the witch have been shaped historically through patriarchal narratives, and how these stories can be reclaimed, reimagined and used as forms of resistance. I work across a variety of mediums including oil pastel, charcoal, textiles and installation.

The emotional, political and symbolic weight of myth informs the atmosphere of the work. Through symbolism, repetition and material exploration, I examine how folklore, inherited histories and institutions of power continue to shape lived experience, identity and visual culture.

Reimagining is central to my process. I often work from photographs, personal archives, found imagery and previous works. The making process is intuitive and embodied, often beginning with a photographic reference but no fixed outcome, largely due to the fact I have complete Aphantasia, meaning I am unable to form visual images internally. This has led me to work through instinct, gesture, layering and material exploration, allowing the work to emerge through the physical act of making rather than from a predetermined image.

My practice is rooted in intuition but increasingly supported by critical inquiry, which I see as an ongoing and life-long process of questioning who forms images, who they serve, how meaning circulates through visual culture, and how these narratives might be reclaimed, challenged or rewritten.

‘A Room for Medusa’

Drawing on ideas of memorial, mythology and power, the work explores how patriarchal, colonial and capitalist systems continue to shape women’s experiences, identities and bodies.

Rather than presenting Medusa as a monster, I reimage her as a figure deserving of refuge, healing and peace after trauma. The installation acts as contemporary alter and a place for Medusa to rebuild. While the room offers a sanctuary it is not entirely free from the systems it critiques. My aim was to create an installation that sits between folklore and lived experience, comfort and unease, refuge and aftermath.