Monday 9 January 2012

'Forgotten Place'





We spend such a huge amount of time, money and effort creating 'the perfect home'. These Turkish and Greek Cypriots had such a short space of dazed time to grab their most prized possessions, unsure if they would ever set foot in their house again.


Unfinished meals left on empty tables, the morning's washing still hanging in the garden. Precious photographs still grouped in the bedside drawer.

'Tomb of the Kings Road'



I am incredibly interested in the concept of the'home'. The home can be comfortable, protective and warm, but it can also be stifling, controlling, and cold.

I have always been drawn to dollhouses, and the controlling aspect of the miniature.

I wanted to recreate the wonderful abandoned houses I had stumbled upon in Cyprus in tiny forms using faded cigarette boxes, representing the derelict crumbling walls. The people in both the North and South of Cyprus had no choice but to flee their homes in the 1974 civil war. I like the idea of being able to take your home with you everywhere you go, kept safe in the warmness of your pocket, easily detected by a simple stroke of the finger.