Medium: cast pewter, plant-dyed canvas, thread
Cast pewter forms made by ferns that fail to launch and turn back in on themselves and towards the earth. Part of a body of work exploring the familiar and yet estranged relationship we have with these ancient and prolific ferns.

Medium: cast pewter, plant-dyed canvas, thread
Cast pewter forms made by ferns that fail to launch and turn back in on themselves and towards the earth. Part of a body of work exploring the familiar and yet estranged relationship we have with these ancient and prolific ferns.

Medium: cast pewter, plant-dyed canvas, thread
Cast pewter bracken shoots are stitched into the fold of a canvas 'holster' making a repository of energy and unfurling growth, resistance and persistence. ‘Frond Bank’ invites us to recognise the familiar and yet estranged relationship we have with these ancient and prolific ferns..

Medium: ceramic, leather, unfired clay, oil paint
Into The Distance was an exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy bringing together recipients of the Barnes-Graham travel award since its inception.

Medium: ceramic, leather, unfired clay, oil paint
Into The Distance was an exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy bringing together recipients of the Barnes-Graham travel award since its inception.

Medium: ceramic, leather, unfired clay, oil paint
Into The Distance was an exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy bringing together recipients of the Barnes-Graham travel award since its inception.

Medium: ceramic, leather, unfired clay, oil paint
Into The Distance was an exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy bringing together recipients of the Barnes-Graham travel award since its inception.

Medium: ceramic, leather, unfired clay, oil paint
Into The Distance was an exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy bringing together recipients of the Barnes-Graham travel award since its inception.

Medium: ceramic, leather, unfired clay, oil paint
Into The Distance was an exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy bringing together recipients of the Barnes-Graham travel award since its inception.

Medium: ceramic, leather, unfired clay, oil paint
Into The Distance was an exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy bringing together recipients of the Barnes-Graham travel award since its inception.

Medium: ceramic, leather, unfired clay, oil paint
Into The Distance was an exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy bringing together recipients of the Barnes-Graham travel award since its inception.

Medium: steel, wool, water, LED bulb
Ffont Pumlumon is a mythic-industrial font, adrift from it’s origin at the source of the river Severn in the Pumlumon mountain-range in Mid Wales. The peat-infused waters of the Severn’s source are obscure but rich, held in a sphagnum embrace. Here they are encapsulated in iron and encircled in wool, as they perform a temporal drift into the Severn’s siltier territories in Gloucestershire (image: Nettie Atkisson).

Medium: steel, wool, water, LED bulb
Ffont Pumlumon is a mythic-industrial font, adrift from it’s origin at the source of the river Severn in the Pumlumon mountain-range in Mid Wales. The peat-infused waters of the Severn’s source are obscure but rich, held in a sphagnum embrace. Here they are encapsulated in iron and encircled in wool, as they perform a temporal drift into the Severn’s siltier territories in Gloucestershire (image: Nettie Atkisson).

Medium: steel, wool, water, LED bulb
Ffont Pumlumon is a mythic-industrial font, adrift from it’s origin at the source of the river Severn in the Pumlumon mountain-range in Mid Wales. The peat-infused waters of the Severn’s source are obscure but rich, held in a sphagnum embrace. Here they are encapsulated in iron and encircled in wool, as they perform a temporal drift into the Severn’s siltier territories in Gloucestershire (image: Nettie Atkisson).

Medium: steel, wool, water, LED bulb
Ffont Pumlumon is a mythic-industrial font, adrift from it’s origin at the source of the river Severn in the Pumlumon mountain-range in Mid Wales. The peat-infused waters of the Severn’s source are obscure but rich, held in a sphagnum embrace. Here they are encapsulated in iron and encircled in wool, as they perform a temporal drift into the Severn’s siltier territories in Gloucestershire (image: Nettie Atkisson).

Medium: seeds, earth, fired and unfired ceramic, brass, canvas, carob pods, mealworms
Installation piece Municipal Primeval occupied the vegetable patch, embedding ceramic vessels and constructions in the soil. The pieces are coated in bumps and pores through which water and roots can pass, and are infiltrated by shoots and leaves. Some are strangely anthropomorphic stacked vessels, like canopic jars for botanical ‘organs’. Mair Hughes and Brenda Waite tend to the beds as two ‘alchemical botanists’, tinkering with processes usually associated with gold.

Medium: seeds, earth, fired and unfired ceramic, brass, canvas, carob pods, mealworms
Installation piece Municipal Primeval occupied the vegetable patch, embedding ceramic vessels and constructions in the soil. The pieces are coated in bumps and pores through which water and roots can pass, and are infiltrated by shoots and leaves. Some are strangely anthropomorphic stacked vessels, like canopic jars for botanical ‘organs’. Mair Hughes and Brenda Waite tend to the beds as two ‘alchemical botanists’, tinkering with processes usually associated with gold.

Medium: seeds, earth, fired and unfired ceramic, brass, canvas, carob pods, mealworms
Installation piece Municipal Primeval occupied the vegetable patch, embedding ceramic vessels and constructions in the soil. The pieces are coated in bumps and pores through which water and roots can pass, and are infiltrated by shoots and leaves. Some are strangely anthropomorphic stacked vessels, like canopic jars for botanical ‘organs’. Mair Hughes and Brenda Waite tend to the beds as two ‘alchemical botanists’, tinkering with processes usually associated with gold.

Medium: seeds, earth, fired and unfired ceramic, brass, canvas, carob pods, mealworms
Installation piece Municipal Primeval occupied the vegetable patch, embedding ceramic vessels and constructions in the soil. The pieces are coated in bumps and pores through which water and roots can pass, and are infiltrated by shoots and leaves. Some are strangely anthropomorphic stacked vessels, like canopic jars for botanical ‘organs’. Mair Hughes and Brenda Waite tend to the beds as two ‘alchemical botanists’, tinkering with processes usually associated with gold.

Medium: seeds, earth, fired and unfired ceramic, brass, canvas, carob pods, mealworms
Installation piece Municipal Primeval occupied the vegetable patch, embedding ceramic vessels and constructions in the soil. The pieces are coated in bumps and pores through which water and roots can pass, and are infiltrated by shoots and leaves. Some are strangely anthropomorphic stacked vessels, like canopic jars for botanical ‘organs’. Mair Hughes and Brenda Waite tend to the beds as two ‘alchemical botanists’, tinkering with processes usually associated with gold.

Medium: seeds, earth, fired and unfired ceramic, brass, canvas, carob pods, mealworms
Installation piece Municipal Primeval occupied the vegetable patch, embedding ceramic vessels and constructions in the soil. The pieces are coated in bumps and pores through which water and roots can pass, and are infiltrated by shoots and leaves. Some are strangely anthropomorphic stacked vessels, like canopic jars for botanical ‘organs’. Mair Hughes and Brenda Waite tend to the beds as two ‘alchemical botanists’, tinkering with processes usually associated with gold.

Medium: seeds, earth, fired and unfired ceramic, brass, canvas, carob pods, mealworms
Installation piece Municipal Primeval occupied the vegetable patch, embedding ceramic vessels and constructions in the soil. The pieces are coated in bumps and pores through which water and roots can pass, and are infiltrated by shoots and leaves. Some are strangely anthropomorphic stacked vessels, like canopic jars for botanical ‘organs’. Mair Hughes and Brenda Waite tend to the beds as two ‘alchemical botanists’, tinkering with processes usually associated with gold.

Medium: seeds, earth, fired and unfired ceramic, brass, canvas, carob pods, mealworms
Installation piece Municipal Primeval occupied the vegetable patch, embedding ceramic vessels and constructions in the soil. The pieces are coated in bumps and pores through which water and roots can pass, and are infiltrated by shoots and leaves. Some are strangely anthropomorphic stacked vessels, like canopic jars for botanical ‘organs’. Mair Hughes and Brenda Waite tend to the beds as two ‘alchemical botanists’, tinkering with processes usually associated with gold.

Reading Thomas Halliday’s book ‘Otherlands’ I was interested in how familiar yet strange some of the ancient lanscapes he describes are, with plants we use and eat today cohabiting with long-lost species. This assemblage includes plant matter at different stages of growth, preservation and decay, from burnt hazelnut shells (used in carbon dating) to sprouting beetroot seeds, strawberry plants and pickled fern heads. The ceramic shape embedded in the centre takes inspiration from an old etching representing Dante’s inferno and the layers going down in to the earth.

Reading Thomas Halliday’s book ‘Otherlands’ I was interested in how familiar yet strange some of the ancient lanscapes he describes are, with plants we use and eat today cohabiting with long-lost species. This assemblage includes plant matter at different stages of growth, preservation and decay, from burnt hazelnut shells (used in carbon dating) to sprouting beetroot seeds, strawberry plants and pickled fern heads. The ceramic shape embedded in the centre takes inspiration from an old etching representing Dante’s inferno and the layers going down in to the earth.

Reading Thomas Halliday’s book ‘Otherlands’ I was interested in how familiar yet strange some of the ancient lanscapes he describes are, with plants we use and eat today cohabiting with long-lost species. This assemblage includes plant matter at different stages of growth, preservation and decay, from burnt hazelnut shells (used in carbon dating) to sprouting beetroot seeds, strawberry plants and pickled fern heads. The ceramic shape embedded in the centre takes inspiration from an old etching representing Dante’s inferno and the layers going down in to the earth.

Medium: fired ceramic, leather, oil paint, unfired local clay
Earthscape Cosmography explores human/non-human tools and connections to extraction, mining, ancient quarrying. An assemblage of objects referencing antler tools and ancient relics imprinted with the maker's hand, these are place materials carrying an imaginary value of exchange reaching through human timescales.

Medium: fired ceramic, leather, oil paint, unfired local clay
Earthscape Cosmography explores human/non-human tools and connections to extraction, mining, ancient quarrying. An assemblage of objects referencing antler tools and ancient relics imprinted with the maker's hand, these are place materials carrying an imaginary value of exchange reaching through human timescales.

Medium: terracotta, steel mesh, charred wood, lighting gel, greaseproof paper, ash
Particle Psychology explores ceremonial responses to burnt waste and particle filtration, taking the long view of our history of exposure to carbon and other particulates in the air. Using a vocabulary combining ancient and synthetic materials, Hughes references neolithic exposure to carbon particles from hearth fires and drying kilns, to the less tangible but more toxic waste produced by incineration and the burning of carbon fuels today.

Medium: terracotta, steel mesh, charred wood, lighting gel, greaseproof paper, ash
Particle Psychology explores ceremonial responses to burnt waste and particle filtration, taking the long view of our history of exposure to carbon and other particulates in the air. Using a vocabulary combining ancient and synthetic materials, Hughes references neolithic exposure to carbon particles from hearth fires and drying kilns, to the less tangible but more toxic waste produced by incineration and the burning of carbon fuels today.

Medium: terracotta, steel mesh, charred wood, lighting gel, greaseproof paper, ash
Particle Psychology explores ceremonial responses to burnt waste and particle filtration, taking the long view of our history of exposure to carbon and other particulates in the air. Using a vocabulary combining ancient and synthetic materials, Hughes references neolithic exposure to carbon particles from hearth fires and drying kilns, to the less tangible but more toxic waste produced by incineration and the burning of carbon fuels today.

Medium: terracotta, steel mesh, charred wood, lighting gel, greaseproof paper, ash
Particle Psychology explores ceremonial responses to burnt waste and particle filtration, taking the long view of our history of exposure to carbon and other particulates in the air. Using a vocabulary combining ancient and synthetic materials, Hughes references neolithic exposure to carbon particles from hearth fires and drying kilns, to the less tangible but more toxic waste produced by incineration and the burning of carbon fuels today.

Reactive Red, shot in a disused quarry, is a response to a painting in Stroud museum showing red cloth from the textile indistry hanging up to dry in the fields. Hughes explores the possible connotations of 'red in the landscape' and the idea that red is a colour of limits. The cloth has been dyed using dyes derived from petroleum and iron, oils and metal. In this landscape it could signify the limits of material extraction.

Made of plant-dyed cloth, straw, wool and teasels, Remnant is a spectral ‘revenant’ of the woollen industry, a rolling tumbleweed roaming the landscape since the heyday of textile production.

Hughes’ work for the exhibition 'Indendiary' reimagines the 'Ragpicker', a figure associated with 19th century western cities who collected rags and bones so they could be transformed in to paper and glue. The Ragpickers of Paris sorted the city’s detritus by hand, sifting through the ‘motley vomit of enormous Paris’, as Baudelaire described it. Today’s ragpickers, mostly in the developing world, sort through toxic materials including the innards of computers. The props presented here explore how the identity of the ragpicker could be reinvented in the west.

Hughes’ work for the exhibition 'Indendiary' reimagines the 'Ragpicker', a figure associated with 19th century western cities who collected rags and bones so they could be transformed in to paper and glue. The Ragpickers of Paris sorted the city’s detritus by hand, sifting through the ‘motley vomit of enormous Paris’, as Baudelaire described it. Today’s ragpickers, mostly in the developing world, sort through toxic materials including the innards of computers. The props presented here explore how the identity of the ragpicker could be reinvented in the west.

Hughes’ work for the exhibition 'Indendiary' reimagines the 'Ragpicker', a figure associated with 19th century western cities who collected rags and bones so they could be transformed in to paper and glue. The Ragpickers of Paris sorted the city’s detritus by hand, sifting through the ‘motley vomit of enormous Paris’, as Baudelaire described it. Today’s ragpickers, mostly in the developing world, sort through toxic materials including the innards of computers. The props presented here explore how the identity of the ragpicker could be reinvented in the west.

Hughes’ work for the exhibition 'Indendiary' reimagines the 'Ragpicker', a figure associated with 19th century western cities who collected rags and bones so they could be transformed in to paper and glue. The Ragpickers of Paris sorted the city’s detritus by hand, sifting through the ‘motley vomit of enormous Paris’, as Baudelaire described it. Today’s ragpickers, mostly in the developing world, sort through toxic materials including the innards of computers. The props presented here explore how the identity of the ragpicker could be reinvented in the west.