   | shrines to childhood sweeties, 2010
Inspired by Irish roadside shrines, I'm fascinated by where they appear - at the roadside, at a crossroads or a natural well or spring. With may passers-by, these shrines become decorated with the emblems of prayers and thoughts, wishes, and over a period of time, claim their own identity. I wanted to make a shrine that would reflect a purpose that these have in a secular world: to collect little parts of peoples lives. Shrines are religious icons, and sacred to me are the sweets that I remember from childhood, with their gory synthetic colours, the overwhelming saccharine flatness and sharp fizziness. Sweets hold a very special place in a child's life - a remembrance of sunshine and happy days; most people have very fond memories of early childhood sweeties and the covetousness of little joys! This shrine is intended to be hung on the wall in a hall or crossing place in the home, or in the kitchen; the containers are functional, evocative to me of birdboxes; the porcelain folds into the layers of a corrugated cardboard box, a metaphor of the transcience of our lives, of holidays, journeys, migration. |
   | shrines to domesticity, 2010
I love the romantic notion of 'home', whether it's a place or a person, a particular house or room, a piece of furniture... and moving - suitcases, cardboard boxes... and the way birds migrate and navigate in search of an ideal climate. Birdboxes are evocative to me of the temporal nature of 'home', and these shrines are intended to gather personal items of the owner with the suggestion of icons of domesticity, a jug or a cup. |
 | shrines to childhood sweeties
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