The Glittering Centrepiece of the Whole Fucking World (2023) velvet, copper, expanding foam, scaffolding. 160cm x 100cm

Photo Credit @JulesLister

This work is constructed from hand sewn velvet representations of the human brain arranged as a ‘brain garden’ where colours are organised into groups, or tribes, or displayed as lone actors existing amongst those tribes. This surreal display highlights difference, individualism, nationalism, exclusion and suggests ways in which groups of minds can be viewed as beautiful or disturbing dependent on social, political and cultural constructs. The work explores knowledge gatekeepers, lone voices, feelings of powerlessness, group rebellion and the power structures that uphold harmful narratives and misinformation.

The work is inspired by my ongoing research into visualisations of the brain, how we value knowledge, both human and otherwise, concerns about the brain being the last bastion of privacy (particularly in light of the advent/threat of brain chip technology) the synchronicity of brain waves between like-minded people and the reclamation of land via plant intelligences that science is only just beginning to understand.