Eternity
2021-present
ceramic
installation - dimensions variable
Right now, humans are, unequivocally, the dominant species. But this has not always been the case, and therefore it is reasonable to consider future circumstances in which we must face our own, inevitable, demise. Humans are directly implicated in both the accidental and deliberate extinction of other species on this planet. We are not the only life form to have this ability. My works are fragments only, impressions of things of which I will never have first-hand experience.
The Age of the Entomocene
2021-present
mixed media - insects, resin, mold, plastic, clay, wood, bacteria (e-coli), agar
installation - dimensions variable
This work relates to a potential future world - the end of the Anthropocene. It is the Entomocene, a time when the planet is dominated insects, not humans. Through this work, I consider how humans might experience a new world order where we are subordinate to another species?
Critter Kit Project
2024
Found insect specimens, collecting container
Interactive sci-art project, ongoing project
The Critter Kit Project encouraged individuals of all ages to collect (deceased) insect specimens from their immediate environments, and then complete cataloguing data identifying the physical nature of the specimen, and then also how they felt about the critter. The aim of this project was to bring together science and art to highlight the everyday bio-diversity of the spaces where humans live.
Hysteria
2007-2019
mixed media – dimensions variable
Hysteria is a disease of non-specific origin, and its potency lies in its ambiguity – its fickle nature acts as a cloak of invisibility. The exceptional, mutating, and non-specificity of the hysterical condition defy western medical convention thus negating the efficacy of standard forms of interrogation. I propose that hysteria is at the base of continuing systematic discrimination against women to this day. This series consists of a set speculative series of medical tools intended to ‘cure’ women of hysteria, and portraits of hysteria women from Salpetriere Hospital in Paris.
Ways to Refer to Her
2016-2017
gouache on paper, framed
installation - dimensions variable
Language both reflects and creates realty - it has an impact on thoughts and actions. How we use language alters the way we experience the world. Such commonly used language to refer to women is inherently negative - steeped in age old biases, sexism and misogyny.
Media Mothers
2012-present
Acrylic, ink, enamel, cut paper
Installation – dimensions variable
The images in this work were collected to bring to the viewers’ attention the contrast between idealized images of motherhood disseminated by advertising and popular culture, and images of motherhood as they are played out every day in the news. This series is in effect a form of longitudinal study – reflecting changing ideas about motherhood over a period of time.
Yellow Wallpaper
2017-2018
silkscreen, paint on paper
Installation – dimensions variable, each sheet H 20" x W 20"
Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860 – 1935) was an American feminist. In 1892 she wrote a book titled “Yellow Wallpaper” which portrays the narrator's insanity to protest the oppression of women at the time. This work is homage to her, a manifestation of her wallpapered room.
Biophobia
2011-present
mixed media on cut paper
Installation - dimensions variable
Biophobia is defined as a sense of dis-ease in nature, and a derisive regard for climates and environments which are not man-made or at least modified significantly by people. This series explores the often fraught relationships humans have with other species on the planet.
Memento Mori (Ammonite)
2024
Grow-bio (hemp infused with mycelium roots)
Site specific installation, approximately H 10’ x W 15’ x D 4”
Memento Mori means, “remember you will die” is phrase that has been in use since the time of Socrates - a reflection on the inevitability of death for all living creatures. Ammonites were an abundant creature and are now a common fossil. Water dwellers, their fossilized remains are used as a dating tool when uncovered in layered sediment with other creatures that they co-existed with 66 million years ago.
Neither Shall You Touch It from the series "Reinstated"
2013-2022
mixed media on cut paper
Installation - dimensions variable
The scene is in a liminal world, a version of the Garden of Eden, but one that might exist in a dream, a place that only exists after twilight and before dawn. Freud once stated, “Anatomy is destiny”. But the women in this work, Eve and Lilith, are constructs, appearing and acting in accordance with their social and biological inevitability.
Anonda Bell
Throwaway Living (from the top of the mountain)
2024
Ceramic, grass, mycelium, glass, wood, cardboard, brown paper, roots
Site specific installation - dimensions variable
In 1955 Life Magazine published an article titled “Throwaway Living”, which highlighted the benefits of plastics made for everyday use. It was in the post war era, and petro-chemical based plastics were being created and consumed with delightful abandon. The cost of this versatile and enduring new man-made material was initially thought to be very low. In the present day we are living with the true cost of this type of plastic, with approximately 6.33 billion tons of plastic waste in existence. As this grows by the minute, it is having a significant, and potentially irreversible, impact on the planet.
Me
2024
Cockroach excrement, legs from tarantula molt, bee pollen, prosciutto, spider web, ants, flies, moths. bones (mice), black velvet, watercolor, paper
Each work in the series is H22” x W 22”
Inspired by an inversion of a love song by pop-synth 80’s band, A-ha. Instead of speaking about a relationship between two humans, the art in this series explores how people regard smaller creatures. Specifically, humans constant desire to separate, and elevate ourselves above all other species – and how this impacts our behavior towards, and treatment of, other creatures on this planet.
The Suburbs at 4 a.m.
2017-present
mixed media
Installation - dimensions variable
In 1932 Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti created a work titled “The Palace at 4 a.m." My artwork explores an idea about the experience of women in the post war era (with resonance in the present day). The implied stories glimpsed through this installation address the anxiety of women who were grossly underestimated, a pervasive sense of unease due to an inability to be charmed by everything they were told would be good for them