ARTISTS TALKING

I adopt an inter-disciplinary approach which allows me to work in different forms, and to benefit from a wide range of collaborative practices – from coordinating and curating joint exhibitions and publications – to working with scientists and pathologists in exploring arts-based applications for diagnostic imaging. Although projects may differ in subject and context – from site-specific video installations to published photographic monographs – the concepts I'm interrogating are usually focused on similar subject areas: the body, the family, notions of urban space and 'place'. All of these are in evidence in my most recent work.

An investigation into the notion of 'place' is at the foreground of the 'Paradise Park' exhibition and publication, a collaboration between myself, the community of Townhill in Swansea, and the Photographic Arts degree course at Swansea Institute's Townhill campus, where I'm an associate lecturer. The BBC are making a programme about the work, focusing on the photographic images produced during the projects two-year duration. This will be broadcast in early June.

I'm also in the process of researching European touring opportunities, with trips to Amsterdam and Italy, for my most recent exhibition and publication, 'Death's Witness'. A multi-media collaboration with Ffotogallery Wales, 'Death's Witness' is a re-examination of the relationship between death, icons, the body and photographic representation, and is a critical arts and science project.

I'm interested in the intersection between theory and practice, and this month I'll be coordinating a new Centre for Lens-Based Arts Practice and Research at Swansea Institute of Higher Education. I intend to use this framework for collaborative practices and projects, and to develop better links between Welsh and international artists, researchers and curators, building on projects like 'Locws International', a biannual site-specific arts event staged in Swansea, where artists like myself work alongside international artists from similar disciplines. The philosophy of my own practice is suggestive of what's happening in South Wales at present, where traditional arts boundaries are breaking down in favour of cross-fertilisation of disciplines and ideas, creating a more dynamic and self-sustaining arts culture.