The work in progress I have pinned and placed in my studio at the moment has me dipping my toes back into some earlier much loved methods of collage using machine stitch.

This work is for an exhibition to be held this June titled State of Flux. For it, my work examines ways that method and process can explore, and pay homage to, derelict spaces, and ideas around modification and the incomplete

These assemblages first started out as small scale prints, mostly created from a group of photo gravure plates. However, at the start it was also interesting to incorporate some lower tech processes such as collagraph and monoprint.

Exploring a fairly varied range of techniques at the start of the project seemed very relevant as a way of working out ways to translate what I had in my mind and how to interpret the imagery I had collected and pasted into my sketchbook.

I always find the investigative stage at the start of a project much more interesting and revealing than the stage where it’s time to move towards resolving the work. There is a kind of freedom and playfulness to this period of a project. Although a deadline IS a very good way to limit the investigate and exploratory stage, for me the first stage needs to be of a reasonable length to allow me time to fully explore.

On the route to resolving these assemblages I found it easier to work if I didn’t feel too precious and fixed about the end result. It didn’t matter if they were destroyed or ruined. The secret to this mindset is producing a large number of pieces that you can experiment with.

The modification that these pieces underwent was quite extensive. Some started off with a long landscape orientation and by the time they had reached a stage where I felt more content with them they were tall, thin portrait format. that had been reduced or increased in size.

Techniques usually involved stitching, then pulling apart and re- stitching. I liked the way this kind of modification, where the disrepair and repair are visible, referenced the buildings and spaces I had looked at. Structural additions and subtractions over time. Intriguing historic building spaces, such as the Old Pay Office (where my studio is based), with visible signs of previous occupants and the building’s previous functions. Some spaces such as Storehouse 9 and the Slaughterhouse at Gosport, derelict and disintegrating, showing the wear and tear of time and the beautiful patina of age.

THE FIVE: State of Flux

press release

Horsebridge Arts Centre, Whitstable. 4-16 June 2025. Open 9 – 5,
except Sunday 10-4. Closed on Tuesdays. Meet the artists: Sunday 8 June, 11-3.

This exhibition brings together a group of multi-disciplinary artists who share an interest in experimental approaches to image-making and form and a passion for enquiry through the thoughtful and innovative uses of materials. Responding collectively to the concept of State of Flux, The Five use print, paper, fibres and found objects to ask and answer questions through art, such as ‘what if?’ and ’when is a work finished?’ There are references throughout the exhibition to a sense of place, memory, time and landscape.
This is the second selling exhibition by The Five. The first took place in May 2022 at
Jack House Gallery, Old Portsmouth.
Sinclair Ashman is a printmaker who says of his approach that ‘uncertainty is always embraced and perfection (whatever that means) is never sought’. His metallic reliefs re-purpose paper fragments typically intended for use in prints, whilst his folded paper sculptures or ‘Flexures’ are created by pre-creasing paper in different directions. The final form is only one of thousands of possible outcomes.
Sarah Mander is a printmaker whose interest lies primarily with the built environment and made objects. Specifically, decay and erosion caused by the passage of time and environmental conditions. Also, how objects such as tools and items of clothing become worn due to use. Works in this exhibition will focus around the ways that these buildings, objects and fabrics have been repaired or patched up. Sometimes the repair is functional and to make do. At other times it is made obvious and celebrated.
Kay Senior is a printmaker and sculptor experimenting with collagraph, papermaking, found materials and casting to discover gestural and expressive forms. Her paper mouldings combine with print to make intriguing free-standing sculptures. She explores how art making can express emotions, reflect states of mind and be a bridge between internal and external worlds.
Consuelo Simpson is a multidisciplinary artist and maker. She describes herself as a ‘forager and finder of orphaned objects honouring histories and reweaving stories of place and time’. Incremental transformations probe the narrative of the network that binds us through place and time. Connections with past and future via objects, materials and skills, feels potent, and where she finds inspiration and moments of contentment.
Sally Tyrie is a Fine Artist working mainly with printmaking, photography, mixed media and bookmaking. Her main interests lie in interactions of material and process through iteration and juxtaposition. The mixed media prints for State of Flux are informed by images from historical and derelict buildings in and around Portsmouth’s Naval Dockyard. Her investigation asks: ‘what is it about ruins that we can find so appealing?’
More about THE FIVE