My work for Between States PhotoHastings group show, explores states within cycles of creation and destruction, past and present, flowering and dying, whether this be through remembering and letting go human relationships in ritual: making a single object with many images that attempts to express and hold the essence of a simultaneously growing and decaying organic form amidst constantly moving elements; or continuing to creatively explore my relationship with an iconic local structure that has fascinated and inspired me for 20 years.

The 3 works in this show are:

Circles, cycles, spirals, mandala:, 8 still images selected from a photographic record of a Ritual Burning of old photographs. My intention was to honour, thank, bless and release past relationships, memories and self identities in order to welcome in the energy of an updated, more fully embodied and present ‘me’. With the energetic freedom from the past represented by these photographs, and nourished with gratitude, I might be more able to embody what I wish to become.

As well as exploring how I navigate life between past and present, this work also explores the process of creating something live through ritual enactment, creatively recording it and then selecting aspects to share in such a way as to encapsulate the experience in order to offer the viewer a taste or inspiration for themselves in relation to the subject and evoking some personal meaning for them. Background image, 1 Seaweed Blessing

A short film, of the same title, is planned to be available to see on https:// www.youtube.com/@ConsciousArts from 27 October 2023.

Wave of perpetually moving elements, a sample image above

Mixed media, including photographs and papier-mâché.

This is an experimental piece asking questions and exploring the relationship between organic natural forms always growing, ripening and decaying and the elements of water, earth, fire and air in which forms continually arise and fall in interdependent relationship. How to express an experience of these things which are always in motion in a static material object and what does that offer? Is the playful experience of my creative process evident in the finished piece? What does the viewer experience?

Burned and drowning pier

Mixed media, including varnished fine art photo print, burnt pier wood and nails found on Hastings beach after the fire in October 2010.

Situated between land and sea (a metaphor I explore in my fine art photo book, Between Land, Sea and Sky, available at the at the exhibition and in Bookbusters Queen's Rd), Hastings pier has been on a particularly tumultuous journey over the last 20 years since I’ve been relating with it, of moving between states of decline, restoration, transformation, purpose, re-purpose and now once again faces a sadly questionable future. This piece is a fusion of photos of the pier in past states with actual remnants of the original structure.

For the Escapism, PhotoHastings 2023 Group show, I've made three images where Imagination meets in the liminal space of these images where alternative ways of seeing invite us to dream a future full of wonder and magic. What’s possible with open hearts full of playful curiosity and joyful aliveness?