Exhibition Hanging-9.11.10

W I L D F A N G S [portraits]

W I L D F A N G S [trophies]

Narratives and images of the Tomboy during the transition from girlhood to womanhood continues to find her subjugated - ‘Tomboy identities are conveyed as benign forms of childhood identification as long as they evince acceptable degrees of femininity, appropriate female aspiration, and as long as they promise to result in marriage and motherhood.’ (Halberstam, 1999,p156) This project acts to reposition the Tomboy as a transient identity during girlhood by way of a visual exploration of the literal experience and the metaphorical poetic continuum.

Tomboy Project

Historical representation of people, places and things, can be traced through photographic records. Photography has the capacity to capture and bear witness to real social conditions.


Brend & Hilla Becher Anonymous Sculptures: A Typology of Technical Construction (1972)


Lesley Turnbull Anonymous Tomboys: A Typology of Social Construction (2010

metaphorical tomboy study #3- "coming out of the fog"

metaphorical tomboy study #2- "frozen Out"

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As my work evolves, I have become increasingly fascinated with the essential and the metaphoric. There are no longer theatrical props, and the need for the human image as my exploration of Tomboyism is altering.

I am testing whether landscape can create some of the core experiences of a Tomboy, with the photography representing archetypal states to explore adolescent emotions such as isolation, being frozen out, boundaries and divisions, desolation, which side of the fence one is sitting on, and the beauty and purity that also encapsulate the Tomboy.

My work is continuing to explore the experiences of being a woman, but I am focussing on the missing voice of the Tomboy. Investigation persists to locate images and narratives that do not patronise the rights of a female to be non-feminine.

It is possible that the corporeal image will fade as I wander through the metaphorical landscape to articulate my theories.

perseverance |ˌpərsəˈvi(ə)rəns|

n:continuance in a state of grace leading finally to a state of glory.

tomboy project [perseverance]

steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty />verb [ intrans. ]
continue in a course of action even in the face of difficulty

I try not to homogenise the Tomboy, allowing the images to capture the individuality of each Tomboy. The photographs in this series become, an indexical trace that document a (legitimate) female lineage, seemingly unrepresented to date within mainstream Western media and the visual arts.

jessie unresolved

metaphorical tomboy study #3- "coming out of the fog"

Natural Selection

Historical representation of people, places and things, can be traced through photographic records. Photography has the capacity to capture and bear witness to real social conditions.


Brend & Hilla Becher Anonymous Sculptures: A Typology of Technical Construction (1972)


Lesley Turnbull Tomboy Project: A Typology of Natural Progression in Girls (2010

Saint Joan of Arc

click here to view Saint Joan (misc.)

click to view: Saint Joan played by Angela Sallocker (1935) (Germany)

Joan of Arc b: 1412
executed 1431: age 19.

..'Joan's cross-dressing, claims to divine guidance, and success had aroused suspicions of sorcery, but her subsequent trial and execution for heresy were acts intended primarily to discredit the Valois cause. In response to an accusation by representatives of the University of Paris, her Burgundian captors delivered her for trial at Rouen on Christmas Eve, after seven months of imprisonment at Compiegne, under the direction of Bishop Pierre Cauchon.

Eloquent in testimony and steadfast when threatened with torture, Joan submitted to the charges of cross-dressing only when weakened by illness and faced with execution. She was sentenced to a life of imprisonment and penance.

After only a few days Joan "relapsed," resuming men's clothes once again, and was condemned. Joan, only nineteen years old, was burned at the stake in the public marketplace of Rouen on May 30, 1431.

Courageous to the end, she insisted on her innocence and asked the executioner to hold the cross high so she could see it through the flames. Joan remained a controversial figure, and in 1456 Charles VII arranged the annulment of her conviction mainly to clear himself of a suspect association'.

Joan was canonized by Pope Benedict XV. in 1920.




click here to view: Saint Joan played by Renee Falconetti (1928) dir. Carl Berger U.S.A

JOan played by Jean Seberg (1957) from adaptation by Bernard Shaw, U.S.A - click here to view

seven year cycle

walking and falling at the same time

what on earth am i doing now then?
to answer that i need to take a look at where i have come from.

2003
seven years ago to the day [next monday that is], i woke up frozen,
with a pain running through the core of my existence and my head
jam-packed-full with fear [false evidence appearing real].
impending doom.
[oh no, not that old chestnut].

i had reached the jumping off place.

i drove my brother Richard and my nephew Magic-Hands Ali, to tullmarine airport, hugged and said goodbye.
then i took myself of to fitzroy baths where i swam forty lashes of the 50m pool.

i have not had a drink since.

nine months later i met a girl called sue.
a whirl-wind romance, a shot-gun wedding and nine months later
a baby called maggie-rose.



then one morning in 2006, after many mornings, of being jolted from my semi-slumber, gulping for air with a tightness in my chest and hands around my throat-
sue said, 'you gorra go.'
i said, 'i know.'

i jumped off, landed and learned how to walk.

fast approaching forty, i decided to do what i wanted to do when i was 8.
i went to art school.

six months into my degree, i had open heart surgery.
my teratoma tumour was removed, i hemorrhaged and almost died.



complete surrender.

i recovered and continued my studies,
graduating in november 2009 with distinction.
i am the only member of my family to have completed a university degree.



in december last year i returned to scotland to visit my family.
on the second day i met a girl and something happened.

the whole of europe was entirely covered in snow.
the girl and i flew to berlin and nothing to this point has been more wonderful
than those four days.

everything snowballed - i had come to a crossroad.



one night whilst in edinburgh i asked my higher power for a sign.
i do this sometimes.
for a long time i have been trying to decide about where in the world i should be - geographically speaking. i want to return to edinburgh, but i don't want to leave melbourne.

a conundrum - forever split.

a loud voice, my voice,reverberated loud and clear inside my head:
'how many more fucken signs do you need?!!'

no longer at a crossroads, i have returned to melbourne where i am commencing my studies, this time in honours.

the unnamed arrives on june eleven for twelve months.
i plan to return to edinburgh next year - until then
i am here and one day at a time i live my life in accordance
to my inner voice. I try to walk the walk and listen.

take the cotton wool out your ears and put it in your mouth



[long distance from edinburgh, my mum said to me last year: you are destined to be successful in your studies. you work hard. although you are an independent woman and have paid your own way, you will meet someone and everything will change forever. and one more thing, the girl you will meet is here in edinburgh!
my mum says stuff like this - we call her the oracle!!]

today's gratitude list

Sunday - 12.43pm

Thank you for my lungs

thank you for my hands

thank you for my legs

thank you for the air

thank you for the river

thank you for the earth

thank you for the stars

thank you camera

thank you for my sanity

thank you for the moon

thank you sunrise

thank you for the ocean

thank you Watson

thank you for another day

hunters bog with my dad

view from my old bedroom in leith

berlin - raw remains

berlin is a formidable place.
it has over-rails, under-rails, light-rails, trams, bike lanes. she bares the remains and debris of her diabolical years. it is an emotional place and i feel very lucky to have experienced berlin, whilst she was blanketed within layer upon layer of silent snow.
in berlin - i fell in love.

I shot these photographs in RAW, which is how i shoot all my photographs when working with digital. i have decided to leave these photos as they where shot - raw being the essence of berlin as i saw it.