Fears, Fantasies and the Familial

This work is born from my compulsion to capture and contain the intangible aspects of my closest, and most complex, familial relationship. This on-going project explores the intricacies and complexities of the irrevocable bond between mother and daughter. The often dissonant nature of this relationship echoed in the images constant oscillation between proximity and absence, abundance and want, identification and rejection, displaying both vulnerability and an almost frightening strength. The work bares witness to both the magical and the mundane; in combining a candid documentary approach with collaborative portraits and impulsive observations female representations flit between domestic stereotype and archaic idol.

Throughout this project I responded to the instinctive impulses of my unconscious, photographing all that I gravitated towards with inexplicable force. Working in this way I have developed a visual vocabulary of the Symbolic; a means of communication that allows me to access and manifest the very basic, ineffable and fundamental aspects of my psyche.

Analysing the symbolism surfacing in my work I realise how desperately I am trying to establish a grip on my fragile sense of self-knowing. Working in this way I have began to understand the extent to which my relationship with nurture, family and home constructs my understanding of femininity, origin and mortality; shaping my fears, my fantasies and my own sense of identity.

Most of all, seeing this work take form, I am blown away by my mother and what we share.