Silk says luxury and opulence. It’s like a visual orgasm.

It is delicate, fragile, luminescent. It allows me to explore my obsession with rich textured surfaces. As it is delicate and fragile, so too am I. So it also acts as a reflection of self or as a kind of self-portrait. It is a by-product of transformation and through some of my work I have aimed to transform painful traumatic events into silk images of freedom, empowerment and self-expression; to transform visceral experiences into something physical and tangible.

I also use it to explore identity; sewing is traditionally a female pastime that I have used to express myself except I have given it a sophistication through the way I use the medium but also with the subject matter and the narratives. I did not go to university to learn to work with silk. It is something that I did as pastime as a child and it now serves so well today. The statement there is that tools of self-realisation and empowerment can come from anywhere. Unlike paint, clay or ink, fabric is a part of all of our daily lives so it’s a medium that unites through shared experience.