Project description
This body of work emerges from an ongoing exploration of the placenta as a symbolic and material form — a space of connection, growth, and transformation. Through textile, sculpture, weaving, sound, and participation, I construct an immersive environment that invites physical engagement and sensory reflection.
The starting point was the creation of three large, red, circular cushions, filled with repurposed duvets. Their layered, organic structure evokes the image of a growing placenta, forming a soft, enveloping space that invites the viewer to sit, rest, and enter into a state of bodily awareness. Stacked together, they create an expanding structure that suggests growth, intimacy, and containment.
From this core, the work extends into interconnected elements: woven roots, circular forms referencing cycles of life and death, and a belt connected to an umbilical cord. The belt functions as an active interface, encouraging the participant to wrap it around their body and temporarily become part of this intimate system. Circular motifs stitched with plant-like patterns reinforce ideas of natural rhythms, growth, and transformation.
The process is rooted in tactile making — cutting, stitching, weaving, and assembling reclaimed materials in deep reds, purples, wool, and linen. These repetitive gestures become meditative, forming a quiet dialogue between body and material, intuition and structure.
This led to the development of a large-scale woven textile, nearly two metres in height, depicting a mountainous landscape inspired by Wales. At its centre, a circular form gives rise to roots that intertwine with the placenta-like structures, extending the work into a broader ecological and embodied landscape. A branch found in the Gower forest, painted in a fragmented red that allows the natural wood to remain visible, becomes the support for this textile, grounding the work in site-specific experience.
The project also includes an audio layer in the form of a guided meditation, accessible through headphones. This sound element is designed to support a deeper state of relaxation and embodied presence, allowing the participant to engage more fully with the conceptual dimension of the work.
The experience unfolds as a sequence of actions: the participant sits within the placenta-like forms, wraps the belt around their body, puts on headphones, and listens to a short meditation and sound composition. In this way, the work invites a slowing down, a softening, and a shift into a more receptive state.
Ultimately, the work creates a space for participation rather than observation — a sensory environment where touch, sound, and stillness merge. It becomes a space for reflection, connection, and embodied understanding, where the participant is temporarily invited into an intimate, organic system of relation and care.
