Videos below, may take a few minutes to download, scroll to bottom for text

The home as a site of tension between the expression of identity and the entrapment of an identity expressed has emerged as the dominating theme of this work.

The work was Project managed by The Art House, Wakefield and supported by The Esmee Fairburn Foundation, The Arts Council England NE and the The Otley Courthouse. With thanks also to the Otley Courthouse Volunteers and residents of Otley, please scroll to title roll below for full list of credits.

Poem III

Poem IV

Poem V

Poem VII

Title Roll

The Otley Courthouse, Yorkshire, 2004, residency and site specific installation.

Video DVD, 9 min (excerpts above) Dancer, Helen Winfield; Writer, Jessica Penrose; Voice over Amy Verity.

Installation: digital images on lasertran (domestic still lifes; Panoramic view of Otley) and on paper (Crow); armchair, lamp and suitcase.

The Otley Courthouse is a former Victorian court and prison building, reopened in 2004 as a community centre. I collaborated with a local dancer (Helen Winfield) and writer (Jessica Penrose) to produce a series of video poems inspired by the context, read on the DVD by Amy Verity.

I also photographed over 100 domestic still life’s in local peoples homes, the still images were applied to the ceramic walls of a former cell (now converted to functional space) the crackled glaze still visible through the transparent medium.

The DVD played on a TV set in the same room. In a second installation, utilizing a heritage cell maintained in its original condition, 6 still images of a crow ‘escaped’ up from a wooden bed and out of the window.