Relations, Stories, Magic

About the exhibition | List of works

I was born at the George Eliot Hospital in 1960 and after the family moved from Hinckley to Coventry we would return to Nuneaton most Saturdays. This always involved a visit to the library and museum, and it was during those childhood visits that I first encountered art that was not landscape or portraiture. It was expressive, mysterious and challenging and pointed to worlds outside my understanding.  It was also around this time that the giant tapestry in Coventry Cathedral, designed by Graham Sutherland, made a huge impression on me.

These early influences - where the human figure and creatures familiar or fantastical were depicted to reflect symbolic, mythological or religious narratives - stayed with me into adult life. Over the years, through study and travel, I have deepened my understanding and appreciation of the history, meaning and significance of art from both western and eastern traditions. This knowledge has proved a valuable context to the development of my own figurative language.

It is an honour to be able to return to the museum of my childhood and have the opportunity to select objects from the permanent collection to display alongside my own work. Some of the objects, such as the funerary head from the Gold Coast, I remember seeing all those years ago; others such as the Kachina doll of a medicine man and the small bronze sapper from Austria I saw for the first time this summer. 

I have selected each object for its visual impact and emotional power, and for the ideas and stories behind it, despite information about the creator or original audiences being quite limited. As well as the five objects on display I also was inspired by the marble sculpture of George Eliot’s left hand that can be found downstairs. This influenced Ghost, No great name on Earth and Hands of the absent author.

This idea, of the artwork as a index of hidden lives, also resonates with the conclusion to Middlemarch when Eliot pays tribute to those who 'lived faithfully a hidden life.' It is a central theme of the exhibition, and the magic lies in the unfolding.