Exhibition at Jardine, Wivenhoe, April 2011

In a diversion from my studies for an MA in sculptural practice, I revisited the theme of flags, with a playful nod to the Royal Wedding.

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The ultimate symbol of our Royal family, the Union Jack has been appropriated as a pop icon and fashion accessory and is more popular today then ever.

Red, white and blue are the colours, for symbolic reasons, of the flags of many countries in the world, but a mere fragment of the Union Jack is instantly recognizable to us. Even without the correct colours it is still distinctive. One of the works I made for this exhibition is a white Union Jack from a nightdress, white being the flag of surrender – in this case, to the marriage bed.

Flags made out of old clothes – thereby not only appropriating the image, but also the means to make it – have been an ongoing theme in my work.

Another symbol of Royal marriage is the intertwining of the couple’s initials. The Royal souvenir machines and the press have surprisingly avoided the obvious lavatorial humour such as a Royal Flush, or perhaps the Royal ‘We’. To commemorate the wedding I embroidered the couple’s initials in semaphore – a perfect sign for the Throne Room?

Dogs are another British obsession. When taking up oil painting two years ago, I decided to choose dogs as a subject to practice on as ‘they are cheaper than life models’ but with a similar scope for depicting proportion, movement, expression and personality. Using friends’ dogs as my subjects, I have worked from life and my own sketches and photographs.