The Quiet Place

'The Quiet Place' explores heritage and identity, using the temporality of place and memory to piece together a fractured and incomplete narrative.

Home, Brighton, 2020. Inkjet print on Non-Woven Wallpaper, 39.4 x 55.7 inches.

I awoke to the sound of voices, a fractious encounter taking place in the hallway. For a while, I stood by the bedroom door, trying to listen to the argument that ensued. I opened the door and walked down the very long, family picture wall of fame to the quarrel taking place at the front door. My grandparents stood at the doorway with my father standing outside. My nan tried to assure me back into the bedroom but I wanted to know why everyone was shouting and why my dad seemed to be leaving. After all, I very rarely saw him and he was my idol.

It was August, I remember because my dad and I had been shopping that day for my nanna’s present. A necklace, that later when she had died, I retrieved from her jewelry box and keep to this day.

He held my tear sodden face, or so ‘I think’ I remember and assured me that he was simply going out for the evening and would be there when I woke up. I returned to bed uneasy at this turbulent encounter but safe in the knowledge that it was temporary. Kevin never returned and I never saw him again, I was eight years old.

This memory, is a conflation of both a fixed and fleeting moment. As I imagine it, try to grasp it, it is gone, fragmented, out of time, yet in the same instance serves as my most visceral reimagining of events that I can recall. I say ‘reimaging’ as every time I recall this moment, it is different.

'Bruno', Blackburn, 2019. Inkjet print on Non-Woven Wallpaper, 39.4 x 55.7 inches.

This project revisits landscapes experienced in childhood, capturing places once shared with a father before his departure. The images give physical form to memory, tracing a journey through familiar terrains in search of resolution and understanding. Yet the landscapes and the act of photographing them resist easy answers. The works are deliberately constructed to create a veil, inviting contemplation while withholding full access to information.

Since beginning this project two years ago, I have located my biological father, who has chosen not to have contact. The journey transformed romanced nostalgia into lived reality, revealing some of the answers I had been seeking. Yet the longing for lost time and the possibility of reconciliation continue to linger, reflecting the ways in which parental presence or absence shapes our sense of belonging.

The evolution of this work is 'Will you write and tell me soon please'

'She Used To Give Me Toffee', London, 2019. Inkjet print on Non-Woven Wallpaper, 39.4 x 55.7 inches.

'Stanwell Close', Sheffield, 2019. Inkjet print on Non-Woven Wallpaper, 39.4 x 55.7 inches.

'Royal Oaks & Magic Paths', Blackburn, 2019. Inkjet print on Non-Woven Wallpaper, 39.4 x 55.7 inches.

Westbridge House', London, 2019. Inkjet print on Non-Woven Wallpaper, 39.4 x 55.7 inches.

'Family', London, 2019. Inkjet print on Non-Woven Wallpaper, 39.4 x 55.7 inches.

’.'Nelly', Blackburn, 2019. Page 7, ‘The Quiet Place’.

'Neither', New Zealand, 2017. Page 9, ‘The Quiet Place

'The Sportmans Inn', Blackburn, 2019. Page 6, ‘The Quiet Place’.

'Departure #1', Sheffield, 2002. Diptych - Page 22, ‘The Quiet Place’.

'Departure #2', Sheffield, 2019. Diptych - Page 23, ‘The Quiet Place’.

You may also like