I use a variety of materials in my sculptures, both natural and man-made, often combining the two to make 'synthetic hybrids.' I love materials and like to explore their properties, pushing them to behave in ways that were never intended. For example, the series, 'Knitting by Numbers', was made by knitting and crocheting wire of different types, forcing single strands to adopt complex shapes.
Much of my work reflects a fascination with the natural world. Mathematics is often used to describe and model this world and its inhabitant, so in Knitting by Numbers I set out to exploit this connection between mathematics and nature. Rather than determining the shape I wanted at the outset, I allowed numerical sequences like prime numbers and the Fibonacci sequence to dictate numbers of stitches and rows used. The variety of organic forms produced allude to the natural world in which Fibonacci sequences can be seen in the flowering of artichokes, the arrangement of leaves on a stem or the structure of a pine-cone. |
