I have always loved three dimensions and so my journey from science subjects at school to making and sculpture was not that surprising when I look back now. My first attempt at carving was such a revelation. It was as if a number of parts of my brain which had been developing separately suddenly started talking to each other and working together.
Actually physically making something had not been part of my school education. I didn’t have a problem with the academic stuff, its just that I had as yet not really had the experience to tell me how much I enjoy the physicality of the real world. After some early successes with London exhibitions I found that making work in a public context was extremely rewarding, but equally it was very demanding.
In the early days it raised the question of how do I fit my ideas to this or that context. Later I became more relaxed about that and found that the incredibly diverse situations I was thrown into were in themselves very inspiring and thought provoking. I stopped worrying about my artistic identity.
Later, when I put together The Compton Skyline Project, which was a large scale collaborative projection event, I experienced another paradigm change. For years I had felt that using still photographs to represent sculpture for committees and selection panels didn’t really convey the experience I am interested in, even if they were good photographs. This was a new adventure again, the emotional power of the shared experience, and the more direct route to strong feelings that film offers, made what is also a three dimensional experience that much more intense and vivid.
I suppose now it is that intensity of experience that I strive for whether it is brought about using film or a more complex encounter with solid materials. I think it makes my artistic relationship with a “viewer” so much more intimate and honest.