Not To Scale
A time travelling exploration into celebrating the lost voices and forgotten lives of Birmingham women throughout history.
Under lock and key no19
Written during a poetry residency at the Birmingham & Midland Institute under the supervision of the brilliant Roy McFarlane.
Ellen Alice Collison
I found Ms Collison inside a Midland Institute magazine from 1916. In this piece, I imagine her life based on research from online archives and her featured biography from that magazine.
dear Mary,
Lockdown brought a lot of time to learn the curves of our home. This is an ode to the lady who once made our house her home, known only as Mary.
The Ballad of
Margaret & Edmund
Imagine if two buildings across from each other
fell in love...
Portraits
Found portraits and photographs of Birmingham's women recreated in watercolour.
SKULK
Based on the story of Joan Boggis, a woman who (as a young girl) worked in a munitions factory building bombs during WW2. She was taken there on a bus at night, and never knew the location - or even what her part of the manufacturing process was. 'Skulk' is a glimpse into this part of her life, reimagined on a night when unexpected snow falls, using research surrounding blackouts in Britain.
women at war
Every year, I produce a Remembrance installation exhibition for Armistice Day, based on Institute Road in Kings Heath. In 2020, this focused on 8 women related to members of the local community; sharing their portraits and stories with the public as well as images found from archives and history books. Each photograph was printed onto aluminium, with their stories engraved into silhouettes alongside them. The installation was unveiled during the Remembrance service where members of the public gathered to pay their respects and light candles for those lost but not forgotten..
BSA
Based on the oral history tellings of the 1942 bombing of the Birmingham Small Arms factory in Small Heath, Birmingham.
