To the Women I Love, 2025
To the women I Love, is a three part sculptural intervention - a love letter to the women in my life.
I thought of how best to write this love letter and decided to create a Goddess of protection who I dubed “Gytha”, a Saxon name which means “warlike”, the first sculpture in this set, I contacted Dr. Sue Brunning and Dr. Sophia Adams, both curators at the British Museum for assistance with research and how to get the historical accuracy I wanted to, however this would soon fade and a more mystical idea of this Goddess took place.
Her companion is a stag called Herewulf, a Saxon name to mean “army-wolf”, or a companion warrior, he came about from the need to give her a male counterpart, someone to represent me in this series. He is there to help Gytha with her duties.
The final piece in this series is “Trish, 1993”, a photograph of my mum from her wedding day, hung on satin, I wanted to help contextualise the sculptures by showcasing one of the women the work is about, the most important woman in my life, my mum.
The work is made from found materials and blurs the lines of traditional femininity and masculinity, Gytha has a hard, typically masculine face in a warrior pose on top of a chariot. A combination of masculinity and femininity. The same can be said for Herewulf, a stag made from a cherry tree with flowers and a childlike face but with a protruding erect phallus, rough in skin but soft in face and temperament. All pieces of this work have been found or bought for cheap in order to create this folk-inspired series of works. They can be seen as individuals of together and the ideas of protection will still be visible throughout.