The contextual study was a struggle. I really felt so overwhelmed by it, I had so many ideas and was trying to cover so much. After a much needed discussion with a tutor I felt I was in a place where I could make some sense of it.

After it was finished I genuinely felt proud of it, I don't know if it is suitable for the submission but I do know it is written in my voice and expresses my practice and the things that have influenced it. Fingers crossed.

When it came to writing my statement for the exhibition it felt natural to revisit the study and utilise some of the descriptions from it. Below is the long version of my statement. for the catalogue it was reduced to 150 words.

Statement

Through my practice, I have found my voice and the many forms it can take. My work expresses the sensuality that is denied in societal conversations; it is touch that is prohibited for being too provocative, the language that is too sensual. Positioning tactility, that is taken for granted, and the sensual aspects of language, that is often muted, together to provide an encounter that questions their manipulation and consumption. Layering language into an overwhelm and packaging up the physical works to mirror the expectations and regulations that are placed on the female artists and many other women by those in positions of dominance.

My work is asking you to lose yourself in a moment, to experience the sensation of contact and material, to not think but to feel; to imagine. I am aware that there is a split in my practice, multiple truths, and by combining them something more potent has emerged, questioning…

I feel that my practice is quiet and unassuming, and I’m okay with that; it's easily overlooked as many women are. The agency is alive in the desire to share the work and subtly knock down the layers of women's suppression inherent in art theory and critique. Word by word, layer by layer, building a body of work, a catalogue, a tome of tablets; paper and performance that allow self-expression and the opening of opportunities for other women to allow freedom into their lives. Art and language combined are the tools to break boundaries, open eyes and change thinking; quietly and unassumingly. A ladder of language and material to climb out of the suppression, so large that it can not be ignored.