My work deals with the idea of identity and belief, from being fostered at the age of three I was constantly aware of my surroundings and the need to fit in growing up. Looking back, I recognise those feelings as universal and the work looks to explore the ‘human condition’, specifically what makes people do what they do to have a sense of belonging – from the everyday to the extreme.

The work looks to showcase snapshot scenarios – a soft narrative to a given situation, process or ceremony. These scenarios could be, on the one hand, unsettling or odd, but to others comforting and familiar. In essence I have created my own religious movement or cult, by doing this, by imagining ceremonies, I can create a mirror to my own experiences of belief and identity.

Often the figure depicted is within a ceremony of sorts, a lot inspiration is taken from the Christian ceremony ‘Communion’ the idea of transformation, taking on something new, be that the belief of the ‘action’, in the case of Communion, the action of taking the bread and wine being the body and blood of christ. I call this ‘active belonging’, the idea that people will participate physically and mentally in an action, a ceremony to show to themselves, to show to others that they believe, that there is meaning in the process, that they aren’t alone, they belong to something, giving a tangible meaning to their own life.