I am an interdisciplinary artist, curator and educator based in the North East of Scotland. My work aims to challenge dominant patriarchal and capitalist value structures through making visible caregiving and maternal experiences through a feminist lens.
“One cannot fully understand care without exploring its nemesis, violence”. - Kathleen Lynch.
My practice is both autobiographical and participatory, and aims to expose systemic violence while searching for and imagining what a care centred community might look like. I use collage as a method of practice whereby I save and collect materials including printed images, objects, scraps, words, stories, and re-present these as collages, sculptures, installations, texts, manifestos or other forms of artwork that speak about the gendered oppression of care work and reproductive labour. I often use found and repurposed objects and discarded everyday materials such as hoover dust, receipts, shopping lists, and I am becoming more conscious of the materials I chose to work with for both conceptual and environmental reasons.
Through participatory, curatorial and socially engaged projects I invite other caregivers, artists, and community groups to engage with my practice. Recent projects have included working with local caregivers in Aberdeen to explore the impact of unpaid and emotional labour on their mental health. Previous projects have explored reproductive healthcare, economic inequality and the marginalisation of single mothers. Between 2018-2025 I founded and directed Spilt Milk; a grassroots organization that supported the work of artists who identified as mothers through exhibitions, mentoring, residencies and workshops. I now advocate for access to quality creative education in my role as lecturer and Programme Leader of the BA (Hons) Fine Art at the University of the Highlands & Islands.
Photo by Anneleen Lindsay (2021).
C.V.
-
2021 MA Applied Arts & Social Practice, Queen Margaret University Edinburgh. (Distinction).
2012 BA (Hons) Fine Art, Central Saint Martins, London. (2:1)
2010 HND Contemporary Art Practice; Edinburgh Telford College.
-
2025 IN OUR SPACES Aberdeen artist commission from Outer Spaces and Aberdeen City Council.
2024 VACMA Scotland Award (Aberdeen City)
2023 The Stephen Palmer Travel Bursary
2022 Magnetic North Theatre, Seed Fund Recipient.
2021 John Byrne Award, Quarterly Shortlist.
2018 Creative Scotland Open Project Funding, The Hope Scott Trust, The Eaton Fund and King’s Cultural Institute for Birth Rites Residency.
2018 Birth Rites Collection Award for New Work, Winner.
-
2025 IN OUR SPACES, with Maria Muruaga and Kirsty Russell. Outer Spaces, Aberdeen.
2025 Post Natal, Lewisham Arthouse London.
2025, Artists Protest: Words & Images, Dunoon MOCA, Dunoon.
2024 MotherOther, The Newbridge Project, Newcastle.
2024 Game Changer, The Design Museum, Holon, Israel (Removed work from exhibition in solidarity with the people of Palestine).
2023, Formula for Care? Tonic Arts, NHS Lothian Health Foundation at St John’s Hospital, Livingston.
2023 ReProduce, Cass Arts, Manchester.
2023 ARTIST / PARENT, AIR Gallery Manchester.
2023 Embracing Our Differences, Billboard Exhibition, Florida USA.
2022 Roe V Wade, Anthropology of Motherhood (online exhibition).
2022 (Re)Production: Parenting and the art world, Open Eye Gallery Liverpool.
2022 196th Annual Exhibition,Royal Scottish Academy , Edinburgh.
2022 Whose Story Is It? Spilt Milk Gallery, Edinburgh.
2020 ReBuild by Sejin Moon, Participatory performance at Quality Yard Leith, Edinburgh.
2020 Schwitters Army, METZ Gallery, Sanquhar Scotland.
2019 Scotland’s Maternity & Midwifery Festival, Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh.
2019 Leith Late’s Glow Art Trail, Edinburgh.
2019 Womanhouse, Hackney, London.
2019 The M Word One Paved Court Gallery, London. Curated by Desperate Artwives.
2018 oh motHER : Spilt Milk Member Show 18, Custom House Leith, Edinburgh.
2017 Birth Rites Screening of shortlisted works, The Whitworth Gallery, Manchester,
2017 See You Soon, Epoch 8 Gallery, Edinburgh.
2017 G.L.U.E. with Edinburgh Collage Collective, The Tent Gallery Edinburgh.
2016 Darkness Cannot Drive Out Darkness, Only Light Can Do That, Lights of Soho Gallery, London.
2016 Second Self, Arusha Gallery, Edinburgh.
2016 Art 16 Art Fair with Arusha Gallery, Olympia London.
2016 Salonathon Embassy Gallery, Edinburgh.
2015 RSA Open Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy Edinburgh.
2015 Women’s Encounters: Matter, Form and Mind in the Art of Women, Palazzo Albrizzi, Venice Italy.
2014 Site-Seeing (Solo Exhibition), Creative Exchange, Edinburgh.
2014 Draw-In with 2-1-4-1 Artist Collective, St Margarets House, Edinburgh.
2014 Resurgence, The Galley Arts, Carlisle.
-
2024 We Can’t Afford to Work for Love, Axisweb (writing commission).
2024 Wild With Child - Outlaw Mothers: Feminist Representations of Maternal Power. (Artwork feature).
2023This is Gender (In)Equality, Global Health 5050 Report.
2023 An Artist and a Mother, Demeter Press. (Short essay and artwork feature).
2022 Unfinished Business, (essay) OVER Journal, Photo Ireland.
2022 (Re)Production: Parenthood and the art world online symposium and zine.
2022 Spilt Milk: Matriarchal Structures for Art World Participation
2021 Cults of Life Zine (Issue 9: ‘Royal’)
2020 ‘The Power of Art to make the invisible visible’, writing commission for Engender (Scotland)’s International Women’s Day Campaign.
2020 Home-works Zine: Artist/Mothers in Quarantine.
2020 Maternal Art Magazine Issue One ‘Stay at Home’
2020 Milked Mag Issue Two: The Portrait.
2019 Wordpower : Language as Medium , publication by Library X.
2018 King’s College London,Artist in Residence Blog.
-
2024 Screenprinting Residency, Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen.
2018-2019 Birth Rites Collection Residency, Department of Midwifery, Kings College London
2016-2018 An Artist Residency in Motherhood
2014 AIR ETC - Edinburgh College Artist in Residence.
-
Birth Rites Collection, Currently at University of Kent, previously housed in the Department of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care, Kings College London.
Schwitters Army International Collage Collection, MERTZ Gallery, Scotland.
Private Collections in the UK, Europe and North America.
-
2024 - Present: P/T Art Lecturer, Moray School of Art, University of the Highlands & Islands.
2023 - Present: P/T Administrator, Society of Scottish Artists.
2018- Present:Founding Director of Spilt Milk Gallery CIC.
2019: Heritage Lead (Mat cover) for Unsung Leith with Citizen Curator.
2017-2020: Freelance Art Tutor with Stepping Stones North Edinburgh, Edinburgh Museums, The Fruitmarket Gallery, Feis Dhun Eidann, Edinburgh College Granton and Dr Bell’s Family Centre.
2017: Member of Edinburgh Collage Collective.
2014-17: Programme Manager Arusha Gallery.
2014-15: Founding Member of 2-1-4-1 Collective.