I recently had the opportunity to show my latest work in the Offside Project space at UCA Farnham. At first daunted by the prospect of filling this space on my own, I decided to work with the constraints I had – time, space and materials.

Choosing a Masters in Fine Art means choosing new approaches to my practice. For this one day show, I wanted to experiment with the images I already had in the studio. A quick trip to Waitrose to buy some everyday domestic items to incorporate into the work, meant I could play around with new materials and ways of displaying existing images.

All the work in the show was created within a short space of time. Being a mother and part-time MA student, requires organising, planning and for me, a high degree of compartmentalising the various facets of my life. The title of the pieces and the show grew out of a desire to communicate this multi-faceted, mental, physical and psychological state of motherhood. Contain can mean many things – contained images within a frame, a box, flesh contained in an organic ‘skinscape’ or simply keeping it together:

contain /kənˈteɪn/ verb

past tense: contained; past participle: contained

have or hold (someone or something) within.
- Synonyms: Hold, have room/space/seating/capacity for, carry, accommodate, seat
be made up of (a number of things).
- Synonyms: include, comprise, take in, incorporate, involve, encompass, embrace, embody
control or restrain (oneself or a feeling).
- Synonyms: restrain, curb, rein in, suppress, repress, stifle, subdue, quell, limit, swallow, bottle up, keep under control, keep back, hold in, keep in check

List of Artworks