“I can be anything I like but first I have to
know what I have been and what I am”
Widely understood as a symbol of transcendence – wisdom,
freedom and ultimately, death – the symbolic significance of the
bird resonates somewhere deep within me. Throughout this auto-biographical project I have responded to the instinctive impulses of
my unconscious, photographing that which I gravitate towards with
inexplicable force.
I frequently draw parallels between my own image and that
of the bird, often caught in a state of metamorphosis, thus visualising
my deep-seated affiliation with these creatures. Working in this way
I have developed a visual vocabulary of the Symbolic; a means of
communication that allows me to access and manifest the very basic,
ineffable and fundamental aspects of my psyche.
Delving into the symbolism surfacing in my work I realised how desperately I was trying to get a grip on my fragile sense of self-knowing. I've began to understand the extent to which my relationship with nurture and family, origin and mortality, constructs my own sense of identity; shaping my fears, my fantasies and my understanding of femininity.
