Hello, thanks for visiting! I'm Caz, your resident artist. I have a BA (Hons) in Fine Art.

I am interested in exploring narrative in a physical form. Narrative is usually a direct path of events and I have been experimenting with this idea by showing narratives physically but from a different angle, creating a narrative that is confused or not chronological. My inspiration for these physical narratives are childhood tales such as Little Red Riding Hood, a fairy tale that has a darker purpose when we review it as adults; Alice in Wonderland, a childhood tale of vivid imagination and bizarre events; and The Secret Garden, a tale of childhood awakening. When researching into the different interpretations of fairy tales I encountered Angela Carter who re-interprets fairy tales to show their sinister sides, such as Little Red Riding Hood being re-imagined as a tale of sexuality and rape.

Fairy tales and children's stories are often used as teaching tools for the young and through these tales we have all been taught what is good and evil. We used to believe in talking animals, witches and magic, but now these tales that we grew up with no longer shape our morals that we have developed as we have grown older. I, however, feel that our childhood tales stay with us throughout life. By using these types of tales within my work I feel that I am able to obtain a connect between the viewers and the piece by simply hinting towards the tale. The incorporation of film footage, paper cuttings, projection and silhouettes produces an alluring essence that I try to bring to all of my works. It is important to me that my work holds an element of fantasy to it as I intend for my pieces to relate to these magical tales from our childhood.

I have always seen these tales as creative vessels, holding within their narratives infinite possibilities where the reader is able to imagine whole worlds and characters, unique to their own interpretations and private. To enhance this sense of a 'secret world' I have selected three tales that made an impact on my own childhood and have placed physical interpretations of them in hidden compartments behind a wall. I intend for this wall to act as the physical barrier that viewers cannot cross just as they can't step into a page thus creating an obvious division between our reality and that of the 'secret world'. My intentions are for the viewer to feel a sense of detachment from the environments within in order to amplify their want to be inside this world. Unfortunately for them, the only access they can gain into my worlds are through a small eyehole. Using a series of these positioned eyeholes I feel I am able to manipulate the viewer without them knowing, because they are constantly moving from hole to hole without realising that I am guiding them from one to the next. I could place smaller eyeholes to draw the viewer nearer, lower eyeholes to make the viewer have to kneel down, place them higher to make the viewer search for an implement to stand on to see through the hole. I am playing on the human fascination and our desire to approach the work for a closer inspection. I do, however, draw on the viewer's self-consciousness because they will be surrounded by other people who want to do the same as them, but they will still feel on show when they kneel down to peer through a hole or when they stand on a ladder. I have always noticed this when there is a hands-on exhibit in a museum or art gallery where most people want to do the same thing, but they require somebody to go before them in order to get over the initial feeling of whether it is correct to approach and touch the works. By doing this I feel I am recreating the eagerness to escape our own reality that we experience when reading a novel. My main intention, therefore, is to unleash the explorer in my viewers in order for them to enjoy my work.