With my granny 
in the white bubble-like Honda civic 
driving to Taupo
from Havelock North

Perhaps I’m ten years old
“what is an artist?”
gran said an artist
sees things 
observes 
everything
their work shows this
seeing

I looked out the window as the forest sped by
I remember 
intense joyful colours shapes details
moving past and felt deeply
in my heart 
this is what I am

I love you gran

Humans have become adept in the creation of robots and machines which fulfil a useful purpose;
Vacuuming the floor
Mowing the lawn
A car is a machine which, as an extension of the human body allows us to travel in a different way,
as does a bicycle.
These machines are extensions of the human and articulated with physical interface designed entirely around the human body.
The machines which we have surrounded ourselves with allow us to extend the reach of our will.

The physical and material world is communicated to through the physical action.
Speaking is a physical action.

I want to go somewhere.
I have a feeling of wanting to be in another place.
I want to go to the beach to relax and to slow down mentally.
To do this I use my physical body in communication with another invented/created physical body; a car, a bicycle, a train, an airplane.

This is a particular point of interest for me; that our communication with the physical is our way of articulating beyond the physical.

The communication of the spiritual / religious through physical mechanism saturates the history of automaton and "living" mechanisms.*

That the physical is a means by which we are able to interact with all things so as to incorporate and convert these things through the actions they serve and the feelings which we have in response to  the physical presence of these things.

The subject of feeling is a place which my creative practise is specifically engaged with.

This is why I specify that the mechanical exists as a language.
We are adept in the subtle understanding of the physical.
We are this physical, as well as whatever else we are!

Our culture/society prioritises the useful or the clearly useful. 
This is seemingly common sense, but this favouring of the obviously useful is a limiting factor in our innovation and development.
So much is not useful which still can be explored.

Feelings are communicated through the physical gesture.

A poetic use of the language of mechanism so as to suggest a relationship between us, who occupy a physical body and an invented physical, sculptural, mechanical body.

The relationship between a person and this physical thing (a composition of stuff) is where the
connection to the practice of puppetry exists.

Puppetry is effective by way of a profound connectedness of the will and body of a person (puppeteer/audience/viewer) to the thing (puppet).
Through this invented-body-thing feeling is expressed.
This happens by the deep awareness and physical expression of techniques of puppetry performance.
The specific communication of physical happens also as a result of the living tradition of puppet making which in part aims to give the human a feeling of sensing a particular and living body.
Through geometry, physics, material quality and form.

most often the puppet is a physical representation

my interest is that this language has value beyond representation and that each suggestion can be isolated and combined with another

words and phrasing 
may be used 
in description and instruction

words and phrasing
may be used
as and for themselves

combined 
to make 
only a shape
only a sound

here
words and phrasing are separated from their obvious usefulness
perhaps
in so doing they are set free
they may again be useful
but no longer must they always be so

so it is with the exploitation of previously useful objects within a poetic phrasing
a previous purpose contributes 
even in the poetic
all objects and material have a previous incarnation
like the roots of words 
an invented poetic archeology of objects and materials

*recommended reading -The Restless Clock by Jessica Riskin

The invisible 
the hand the thing
the firmament 
the environment 
the mechanical support system
the thing that brings life
that which allows to move 
the following 
the shadow
the magician 
the thief
the deceiver 
the force

behind 
in front
around
holding 
embracing

the mysterious female 
the valley spirit 


being that which is seemingly independent 
the character which we engage and believe


the body of a thing
the solid object morphology 
geometric details
the area between points

time 
spirit of change

water 
air
airplane 
wind

moving
still 
touching

the hairs on the back of my neck
stand up
I can’t see the thing which is making that move
I am alive
here

alone 
not
alone 

impossible 

I am
without
I am inside
inside me
I breath

through air connection complete
in my body
all through my whole body this air 
this food I eat moves me 
and through me
completely I am this 
I am it

the puppeteer 

this here
this one 
they

hiding 
hide 
not there 
unseen 
so we are convinced 

that

it lives
lives and breaths

but
something 
somewhere
is what it
is this 
that it moves

could crush it 
could annihilate 
but doesn’t 
it gives

allowing 
guides
follows
responding through what is 
all around 
focused inside
subject
solid
object

treasure

a distraction from the whole

bird shows air in flight
invisible mapped by solids moving
we are this
of what we are deeply of
to be this experience as allow-er to a livingness 
so proficient at hiding somewhere 
anywhere 
in discomfort
finding repose 
calm 
breath is key in these moving moments when the life which I am is directed
projected into 
another solid 
body

I am collective
I am shape shifter
absolutely physically empathising 

spectrum of densities and porosities 
varying degrees of absorption
I travel through 
sit inside 
stand in 
walk through
passing through place
solid 
seen 
not seen 
liquid 
gaseous

puppeteer is human representative of firmament 
experiencing
being 
allowing
listening loudly to the seemingly weaker

following 
what I can so easily prevail over
​
is this not the giving of love?

allowing life to be through another body
sharing physically 
puppetry is by its nature the most intimate of expressive acts 

I am this body which you believe to be living
knowing that it is me
I am so totally this body
unlikely
still it is living
letting my living breath through this other physical body

also
I am un-living without this surrounding 
which lets me live 

as is the puppet
we are of the same 
piece of earth

the life through this physical body
mine
yours
object physical vessel for life 

I am a puppeteer 
in total giving through object
I need not hide
giving 
completely to another body 
renders me that which I have gifted with life

neither of us owns this livingness

This morning I was witness to the robin 
whom I know so well
(through summers and winters for countless passings)

hold in beak
with gentleness 
and care
profound
the final moult before the wing
a damselfly

(this creature I have been
as much a human may feel to be)
and for both 
I felt a care towards 
their sharing

Gentle robin
whipping tail
of adolescence insect form
living is here another’s dying
(my conclusion in this common mystery)

How one may
the other
become
and in so doing
undo a path
which never was

kindness
even in seeming atrocity
seemingly is this nature’s mystery

phrasing in these poems

there is such economy
of placement

whereby

parts will communicate with each other

anything more
will only contribute to lessen

my aim is not to finish an art piece

rather

to feel something
​through a composition

With so much effort going towards the promotion of an artist as brand competing through projections of (market) success and continuous creativity, I am happy to have an honest portrait of me and my creative practise.
This includes an element of struggle, insecurity and the inevitability of an unknown future.
Edward Baiduc has managed to capture the human that I am; in my North London studio, at the Royal Academy and within the nature I love and crave at the Walthamstow Wetlands Centre.
The winding path of the artist is not necessarily the easiest to traverse.
(I speak here for myself)
There are dizzying heights and unfathomable descents, such shifts in altitude often take place within an insanely short space in time.
I do love being in this creative way as an artist.
I am learning all the time about what is possible and also what may not be.
One thing I ask is that if you are in a position to financially support an artist please do so.
This may be in purchasing an artwork or buying them a coffee someday!
I wish to give thanks to all of you who have encouraged and supported me through good times and hard times... and the crazy mixture of both in the same moment!

As a unifying concept; that which gives the impression of being alive.

A puppet gives this when performed proficiently with technicality and skill.

An object can give this when referred to in a certain way.

A mechanism can have this when there are sufficient indications given through design, movement engineering, rhythm and form, so as to inspire an empathetic physical feeling/response in the viewer.

The notion of livingness draws together many strands of my creative research.

In my drawing this is suggested towards by a feeling of recognition within the composition, once this has happened now it is time to stop.

Livingnesses are hard to place, to define and/or to frame.

Floating bodies maintain this due to the physical inspiration/stimulus from and through the fluid they are within.

We are such a floating body.

this year I am thankful most of all to community and people who I have shared with 
conversation
music
art
theatre
ideas
smiles 
joys
cellebrations
sadnesses
challenges
pain
disagreements
togetherness

the friends who have listened
to me when things have felt too much
too confusing
too frustrating
too unexpected

those who have given to me
their time
their ideas
their stories
friends who have let their guard down and trusted me

friends who have been by my side
those I have known for many years
new friends who share smiles and experiences

I thank the creative environment which has acknowledged and facilitated my creative practise

I thank each individual within any place I have visited
for whatever reason
perhaps to buy a coffee
or a bottle of wine
food
anything!

we are all connected in some way

let’s live love and grow deeper togethernesses in 2023!

Thank you 2022, you have been a wild year and impossible to pin down.
​

The principle relationship in the drawing of an idea into the physical/mechanical/tactile is the relationship with my total body

Thoughts and ideas are absorbed and then acted upon

The principle ingredient in any manifestation is the human action

This is infused with idea and thoughts which grow and alter are born and die
forming
moving
the studio is an incubation place

To make 
from idea
like a mother
gestation of a received spark
intense
physical
mental
spiritual
absorption
making new
out of my body’s energies

When I lived in Auckland, Aotearoa/New Zealand I received traditional Maori Healing (romiromi) and wisdom from Papa Jo Delamere and Manu Korewha.
Up until this time I had taken and used whatever I wanted from the physical world to make bodies to form puppets and sculptures.
These bodies began to feel strange and frightening and not ‘right’.
One conversation with Manu has stayed with me and is of the greatest significance to the process of manifestation I am involved within.
On talking about my being an artist and puppet maker, Manu responded that I was a genetic engineer; the different parts of what I make would forever be in argument with each other unless they were each acknowledged and thanks was given.
This act by the artist/maker of acknowledgement can be viewed as a form of prayer (karakia).
The physical is acknowledged in the most profound sense so that the thing made is new and its constituent parts are content in their energies and so happily act in concert.
The conversation of materials is my preferred sculptural analogy as it is inclusive towards the maximum information of any combination of physical/mechanical elements.

The place where a thing is from is honoured in the deepest sense and so alleviating the strangeness of the newly made and allowing it to sing, joyfully and significantly in its new manifestation.

A living potential expressed through the combination of inanimate elements.

Within autonomous sculptures this happens devoid of human contact.

This quality is expressed in contact with a human through the ancient principles and techniques of puppetry.
The inanimate gains living movement through connection and direct physical contact with the human puppeteer. 
The multifaceted rhythmic of a living person, never still even when still is transferred to a thing.

The observer’s perception is altered.

We are experts at detecting “livingness” from “non-livingness”.

My thoughts on this;

This has come about due to our development and survival as a species over millennia.
We need/ed to know if a thing in the corner of our perception is/was alive (therefore a potential threat) or not alive.
This has been instrumental in our survival within countless scenarios.

I do not believe we can mentally “chose out” of this. 
It is hard-wired into our total being.

In experiencing puppet theatre we ride this ancient perceptive attribute;
We experience joy and elation in the mental knowledge that the puppet is not alive all the while unable to switch off the deep innate feeling that it could be.

The puppet is both a potential threat and not a threat in the same moment.

In my development of sculptures which communicate a sense of their being alive I exploit the tension, holding and release of materials to express “livingness”.

I prefer to not rigidly join one thing to another and instead chose dynamic and fluid jointing techniques found within the tradition of puppet design.

Although the initial drive may originate from an electric motor, the character of the moving is a composition of certain selected materials and objects, each contributing their unique way of holding and releasing.

These dynamic assemblages are an orchestra of these things expressing the desired feeling/s through tension, release, movement and sound.

Below is a detail from the sculpture Bow Down and Very Low - 123 developed for Ingrid Pollard.

A living breathing stillness is observed here in the subtle pulsation of spring steel saw blades.
Perhaps these materials are experiencing physical waves of remembering as to how they arrived here and then onward to continue their dance.