I have used themes related to the garden, the rose and processes of gift giving and exchange intermittently in projects since 1995. The major impetus for looking at the garden and gift giving in my work came with my invention of Echolalia, a fictitious artist whose work is characterised by the use of live elements which she combines to make exhibitions, events and a variety of postal and telephone works that have extended throughout the world. Her style and signature themes are the colour pink, the rose, scent and sound as an incessant cacophony of discordant ‘singing’.
What initially began as a small scale, anonymous investigation of the relationship between the artist, the audience and the artwork, grew over a number of years to large scale public works. These include In Memoriam at The New Art Gallery Walsall in 2001 and Echolalia's Rose Garden for A Splash of Colour for architects Shillam + Smith. Subsequently I have in different ways drawn on elements from my work with Echolalia, having brought the rose, flowers, gardens and processes of audience engagement into a number of large-scale projects.
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