AUTOMATA
Puffin Flip Flap (2019)
First go at automata-making, with help from studio pal Dan Gregory and guidance from Stephen Guy aka Fire the Inventor. Displayed at Craftco (Southwold), as part of their ‘Birds’ exhibition in July 2019, it’s a tribute to Ron Fuller, one of the founding members of the Craftco cooperative and much-loved toymaker who passed away in 2017. His Puffin Whirlygig adorns the A-board outside the shop.
Flip Flap Trio 1 (2019)
Building on knowledge gained from Puffin Flip Flap and an attempt at something more ambitious! Three birds driven by one wheel rod and their individual egg cams. Birds include barn swallow, jay and mallard.
Flip Flap Trio 2 (2019)
Puffin joined by barn owl and marsh harrier. Fascinating to see how the different shaped birds give an illusion of differing speed and movement. Both the Flip Flap Trios were exhibited at Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s Cley Marshes Visitor Centre (Norfolk) during August-September 2019.
Peregrinations (2020 - 2021)
During lockdown, four local artists have worked with community groups to develop original performative artworks depicting and celebrating the Peregrines of Norwich Cathedral. Together they present ‘Peregrinations’ a performance featuring live art, physical theatre, kinetic sculpture and spoken word. ‘Peregrinations’ is curated by Holly Bodmer, featuring performance and art by Alice Lee with Norwich Men’s Shed, Eyebrow Arts (Dot Howard and Sorrel Muggridge), with Corton House Residential Home, Rebecca Chapman with members of Total Ensemble and Holly Bodmer with Su Squire and members of Norwich Community. Supported by Arts Council England, Norfolk and Norwich Festival, Hawk and Owl Trust, Norwich Peregrines Group and Norfolk County Council. - NNFest 2021
During the collaboration, with members of Norwich Men’s Shed (Shedders), we produced a collection of peregrine toys (with automated wings) and a large kinetic sculpture. Inspired by German Christmas pyramids, the sculpture ‘Fledge’ would depict the timeline of the peregrine breeding cycle, which happens on Norwich Cathedral spire each year. Through a series of online meetings over Zoom, we were able to discuss and explore the project, using the platform to share ideas and work we had made independently as well as draw from each others’ expertise and experience. The lifting of some pandemic restrictions meant we were able to fully realise the sculpture and ‘Fledge’ became a centre piece for the final ‘Peregrinations’ performance, visually demonstrating what we were able to achieve collectively during a period of adversity. Below is a video detailing the five stages of the peregrine breeding cycle, narrated by one of the Shedders.
Fancier (2022)
‘Fancier’ is a personal project, based on racing pigeons, and a collaboration with friends made at Norwich Men’s Shed during the ‘Peregrinations’ project. We built a motorised, mechanical theatre in two parts, one side narrates pigeons in training and the other tells us about race day.
The work is inspired by collective ideas developed with Norwich Men’s Shed from our previous project, Jon Day’s ‘Homing’ (the only book I managed to finish reading over lockdown) and my dad who loved pigeons. The correlation between the sport and the shed, how both aim to help relieve feelings of isolation particularly in men, was also a huge influence.
‘Fancier’ first went on display in the windows of 20 Elm Hill in Norwich during April 2022, moving on to originalprojects;’ PRIMEYARC in Great Yarmouth as part of the exhibition ‘studioUS’ (May - July 2022) and one half spent Christmas 2022 at Jack Garcia Coffee shop on Columbia Road, London (featuring a new London skyline and illustrated surround by Andrea Hammersley).
Special thanks to Steve, Andy and Mike for helping me realise my vision.
Seebirds (2022) - For Glasseslab, London
A window display commissioned by Glasseslab London for their Greenwich branch, just down the street from the Cutty Sark, in place between December 2022 until Spring 2023.
The installation included an automaton of seabirds trying on Cubo Eyewear (Glasseslab’s in-house brand), accompanied by flying puffin vinyls on the windows themselves.
Follies (2023)
In July 2023, I was invited to create a new installation in the windows of 20 Elm Hill, Norwich. My aim was to try something new and more ambitious than my previous mechanical windows, combining my ceramics hobby with drawing practice, and to see if I could find some synergy and balance between these two mediums. The outcome is a series of automatons encased in slab-built clay structures.
‘Follies’ is a result of play and experimentation, using a variety of processes including 3D-printed engineering. The narrative is based upon a conversation with a prisoner of war who talked of the monotony of confinement and the tainted joy of freedom. An edited version of this became the soundtrack of an animated piece from my undergrad degree which I never completed. This has been a chance for me to re-visit this work, creating a mechanical storyboard of sorts, using metaphor and abstract elements to help tell the story.
A folly could be described as a structure that defies precise definition.
Thanks to mentors Steve Webb, Ned Davies (Helgate Pottery) and Anna-Lille Dupont-Crabtree for making a super speedy documentary of the window installation (you can view this via the Instagram link on the left).
Frame (2024)
“The [book’s] quiet optimism about our ability to change, and to learn to love small things passionately, will stay with me for a long time. How perfect it is that pigeons offer us a way of thinking about home that is free from appeals to race and history, political boundaries and exclusion.” - Helen Macdonald on Jon Day’s ‘Homing’ in TLS (August 2019)
For a while now, The Garnet Stores & Supplies have stocked my cards and other printed ephemera and asked me if I’d like to use the window space to create a new display. Due to its proximity to Norwich Market and its avian inhabitants, it felt like the perfect opportunity to pay homage to the pigeons there.
This automaton piece, called ‘Frame’, is influenced by Norwich Market and the historic, jettied architecture of The Garnet pub, which helped to determine the narrative aspect of the work. There were a couple of new things I wanted to try… going upwards with the automaton movement and capturing the pigeons regularly swooping over the market square.
I reused the base unit from the ‘Seebirds’ installation for Glasseslab (from 2022) and built on top of it. I was left to fend for myself with the construction this time (my mentor Steve helping me remotely). I like the challenge of recycling the cam units as it provides me with parameters in the movement I can work with and enables me to retain a relationship with but also develop my previous work.
‘Frame’ is accompanied by flying pigeons across the windows and can be seen at The Garnet Stores & Supplies over Spring 2024. The motors will be running daily from 10am to 7pm-ish.