Extremely pleased to say I am the lucky recipient of an Arts Council England ‘Develop Your Creative Practice’ (DYCP) grant for 2023.

DYCP will allow me to explore a more experimental output to my practice: combining new research, mentoring & practical skills. I’ll develop inclusive analogue & digital approaches to visual storytelling & establish a network of national & international partners for future collaborations, building strategies to support the sustainability of my long-term practice.

Focused on my interest in place, memory & the messages from a WWI postcard collection, I’ll undertake a residency in the French town of Grandpré, Ardennes to test new approaches within collaborative engagement. I’ll experiment with live performance, audio & film installations & how these can build potential for digital storytelling platforms in future projects. Documentation will be disseminated digitally & via pop-up installations for feedback/critique to help build an important legacy for future social art projects.

I’ll research my core themes, including visits to archive La Contemporaine, Paris; Anti-war Museum, Berlin & Postcards for Peace. Dr Corinne Painter (Intercultural Studies Lecturer, Leeds University), Lara-Marie Hägerling, (Technische Universität Braunschweig) & Prof Matthew Jefferies (Programme Director German Studies, Manchester University) will provide translation expertise and cultural context to increase the conceptual rigour & build relationships for future commissions.

I’ll complete training in virtual platform storytelling & coding: audio production & editing; video techniques, editing & integration. Mark Devereux Projects will provide mentoring to reflect on my practice development, build plans for future projects & establish a strategy for new opportunities.

Pleased to have two preparatory pieces from ‘La Vojo Returne’ selected for this on-line show during December.

On Saturday 5th November at the public view, George Szirtes read from the collaborative text that accompanies the images in the book of the project. George modestly calls his text a series of marginalia accompanying the Gearing archive and my new responses, but they are a wonderful way to explore the edges of the work. Along with the readings, third generation distant cousins from the Gearing and Gower families met for the very first time as I brought them together in Norwich.

Thank you to everyone who came to the artist talk, the book is still available to purchase at the special price of £15 + postage during the exhibition and includes a free pack of extras including an A5 archival print of ‘Norwich Cathedral, dying flowers’ from the series.

Commissioned by Touchstones Rochdale, ‘Pass! Shoot!! Goal!!!’ is a community engagement project made in conjunction with fellow artist Neville Gabie. It is a contemporary interpretation of an early 1930s football song recorded by Rochdale’s iconic Gracie Fields.

12 minutes 58 seconds. This single screen version of the immersive synchronised multi-lingual interpretation of Gracie Field’s song was originally made up of a projection and three wall mounted monitors, with four accompanying floor-based cube monitors in the centre in Gallery 1 of Touchstones Rochdale. This is the single screen version.