Artist’s statement

It was the modernists in the early 20th century who popularised collage and photomontage, and elevated the medium to high art. They employed the technique to unleash the subconscious, collapse artistic doctrines of the past and promote a new, progressive reality. These were artists that used their utopianism and innovation to fuel their ascent out of the ashes of the first world war, into a limitless and hopeful future.

A century on, my collages pay homage to that epoch of optimism and idealism, but they are made in a very different atmosphere and with an almost opposite ethos. In the early 21st century, consciousness of the fragility of the natural environment, guilt about consumption and waste, and a fear about the future of our planet are the issues that preoccupy many and which frame these pictures. Collage seems to be the perfect medium to express this new reality. These images recycle finite materials, repurpose ephemera and aesthetics from post-war domestic design and lifestyle guides, and look back to a generation who defiantly looked forward.