Degree Show 2024

Swan Song is an installation composed of several kinetic sculptures and films, each serving as a fragmented piece of a larger narrative.

My work has always served as a means to digest, process, and communicate complex emotions and experiences. After the recent loss of my father, I found myself drawn to recreating the traumatic imagery associated with hospitals and death. These clinical images have seeped into the otherworldly scenes I create, culminating in the central piece of this installation: The Dying Swan. This performative sculpture features a swan enclosed within a 6-foot metal cage, attached to a drip that releases 5 litres of ‘blood’ over the course of the performance. As the blood pools onto the velvet-clad base of the cage, it stains the fabric, visualising the swan’s decay and encouraging the growth of mould, further emphasising the swans deterioration.

Fairy tales, at their core, serve as emotional clarifiers, exploring fundamental human experiences such as disgust, desire, fear, change, and mortality. Francesca Gavin addresses the need for darkness in her book Hellbound; ‘Exploring dark imagery or ideas in art arguably helps to create a sense of control in a world where we have none.’