Studio 10 Residency
East Quay, Watchet, Somerset
Nov 2025 - Jan 2026
During my 6-week artist residency at East Quay, I was thinking about the role of choice in the modern world where technology and algorithms infiltrate nearly all aspects of life.
I considered what illusions I might be under about how I conclude my own political stances, what I think about global issues, what route to take when driving, what cafe to visit, the shoes I buy, friends I have, opportunities I'm exposed to and beliefs I have about my own identity. I’ve been particularly concerned with how my inspiration for ‘connecting to nature’ nearly solely comes from social media.
During the residency, I repurposed landscape oil paintings sourced from charity shops and included decorative plates celebrating the imaginary perfection of ‘the old days’ that I and people around me continue to romanticise. It is the relationship between longing for ‘authenticity’ and how algorithms impact our opinions and choices that I find most interesting. I feel we are nearly all under a kind of spell cast by technology yet we are unaware of its control over our thoughts and opinions as we go about our daily lives. Is it now the closest thing we have to magic? With algorithms entangled in our romantic relationships, political opinions, inspirations and visions for the future, I wonder if our autonomy is completely masked.
I developed the textile floor piece in collaboration with the AI chatbot, ChatGPT. It is inspired by a painting by Heironymous Bosch called The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things which I saw in Madrid a few years ago. This work was finished around 1500 and depicts Christian moral concepts: the sins (Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath, Sloth) in a large central disc, and the "Four Last Things" (Death, Judgment, Heaven, Hell) in smaller surrounding circles.
I asked ChatGPT what it thought the modern day seven deadly sins were. After some conversations , I asked it to create images for each of these which informed the images I’ve made in fabric.
AI’s modern world seven deadly sins are:
1. Technology Without Ethics
2. Consumption Without Sustainability
3. Influence Without Accountability
4. Wealth Without Equity
5. Knowledge Without Truth
6. Progress Without Humanity
7. Connection Without Empathy
Materials used: hand dyed fabric using plants, felted alpaca wool, waxed cotton, straw, hay, leather, mod rock and oil paintings
