8m long colour lithography scroll with oak wood details.

Exhibited in SNAP Gallery in April 2022

Video on alchemical process available under the vimeo link.

Morning glory, tansy, and onion pigment.

In mid-century England white witches and wise-men were negotiated with for love charms (Hole 1940, 16). The mandrake - named for its leg-like root system that resembles a man’s figure - was one of the most potent cures offered for childless women (16). The plant was said to kill whoever pulled it up, so often people would fasten a dog to the base of the plant to pull it up (17). In Lincolnshire folklore, they distinguished between “mandrake and womandrake” (17). The human figures of mandrakes are intriguing for their removed individuality but intact integrity; when ripped from the soil mandrakes were treated like a serious exchange of one life for another. The anonymity also avoids a nasty curse; creating an image of someone else can cause illness or death if pins are stuck in them, the image is buried, or melted (115). The red clay of most of these mandrakes is crucial for their relative impermanence - fired clay will outlast all stones. The connection to the earth through clay is important for the intention and spirit of the mandrakes to feel consistent. Should these pieces be buried and found millenia later, there will be human beings that resemble their form, hopefully people who recognise the tale of the mandrake, and people who see these pieces in the lineage of feminine people relating to themselves through sculpture - such as the Venus of Willendorf. This series exploring themes of English folklore are a method of reclaiming the temporality of the body by subverting the ephemerality of it, and mending homesickness.