Quay Words
Writer in Residence at Exeter Custom House. Commissioned by Literature Works to write a maritime-themed piece responding to the quayside.
I explored the Devon and Exeter Institude archives and ran workshops on ‘found’ poetry and sensory cartography. My commissioned piece is titled ‘Index of Exeter Quay / From the blue door, I beckon’ and published in Sculling.
Boat Poets
Poet in Residence at Bristol Harbourside. Travelled through Bristol using Bristol Ferries, enagaged in workshops at SS Great Britain and toured commissioned poems to Plymouth’s Barbican, Ocean Studios and Arnolfini.
My poems included ‘Notes on Hung Road’, which won the Brian Dempsey Memorial Prize and ‘Three-Second Storm’ which was made into a poetry film by Ben Dowden. Both are published in Sculling.
Image: Paul Blakemore
Seacroft Kites
Commissioned by A Quiet Word to design a kinetic mobile of metre-wide wire kites, which were later installed in Leeds Library as part of a project connecting with Seacroft in Leeds, and its community.
Riptide
Writer of three immersive productions for Riptide:
SWARM – an immersive nightclub experience in a repurposed art gallery, Leeds.
You Are Here – a series of intimate one on one encounters through Leeds city centre giving audience members real choice as to how their encounters progress. A mindful, Truman Show-esque experience.
SONDER – an app-based binaural video walk along Leeds’ River Aire using GPS technology. Step into the mindful narrative of a relationship and a city.
Bringin the Outside In
Artist in Residence for Pyramid of Arts at Tetley Gallery for Beyond Festival. I ran workshops with a community group over several weeks to sculpt wire portaits and clay replicas of landmarks that reflected their relationship to their suburb Holbeck.
I hung their artwork from kinestic wire mobiles that moved gently as bodies walked around the gallery.
Paper Nations
Professional Writer for Bath Spa University-based creative writing incubator. Worked on Paper Nations’ Writing For All campaign and read at the MIX International Storytelling Conference. Supported the facilitation of the Stay at Home Literary Festival during lockdown and StoryTown Festival in Corsham.
Tinned Peas, Exeter
An interaction installation and poetry collection inspired by foley art. The exhibition held a room of mundane objects that the reader interacted with to create a sound that was imbedded in the poem, eg squeezing a glove full of corn starch created the sound of footsteps in snow, tilting frozen peas on a baking tray sounds like rain.
The reader carried my hand-produced booklet of poems designed like a ‘How to’ guide around to each station. The installation was accompanied by my essay, titled ‘Tangible Poetry and Dried Peas: How can the printed poem be transformed into an interactive, sensory experience?’.
Living Stiches
I wrote a series of micro fiction pieces inspired inspire by two Leeds tower blocks and how they were connected by washing lines. I hand-stitched two pieces into clothing and hung the collection as an installation.