Projects

These works trace a clear path through the artist’s evolving practice: from community-led storytelling and participatory installations to sculptural forms grounded in rural material culture. At their heart, each project responds to place - not as backdrop, but as presence.

Drawing from archival material, oral histories, puppetry and performance, the artist’s focus has gradually turned toward sculpture - quiet objects that hold memory, ritual, and the textures of ordinary life.

The Dufton Hoarde marks a significant turning point: a self-initiated museum work that brings together fieldwork, contemporary object-making, and fictional ethnography. It signals a move into gallery and museum contexts and a deepening commitment to sculpture as a form of rural storytelling.

Beneath the Beacon
(2016 -2019)

A large scale market town engagement project, animating an alphabet of 26 hidden stories through sculpture, performance and archive. 14 venues across Penrith were activated by fictionalised portraits of townspeople beneath the red Beacon hill.

Intricate mechanical diorama with a puppet Peter Crosthwaite figure in a vitrine, featuring various decorative elements and mechanical components.
Gallery exhibit with wooden puppet stage and red curtains, featuring a puppet on top. People observing artwork around the room.
A display with a miniature figure dressed as a soldier sitting at a desk, surrounded by books and mechanical gears. A large blue letter "C" is in the foreground, with books in the background. The scene is set inside a glass cabinet.

Story Giants of Eden
(2011 -2012)

A giant storytelling project across 19 schools in Eden, co-created with children and communities. I built the figures, shaped the story, and led a team of artists across the district.

Child wearing a straw hat holding a handmade mask on a stick, with a blurred green natural background.
Large puppet with a striped outfit and oversized hands in a street parade, surrounded by spectators including children, with buildings in the background under a clear blue sky.
Outdoor gathering with children and adults in St Andrew's churchyard featuring large costumed puppets and props. Children wearing hats and costumes, with a Mansion House and trees in the background.

Calthwaite Monopoly
(2007–09)

A place-based installation exploring village life through invented play, archive research and live art. Co-designed with children and elders in Calthwaite.

Young girl in school uniform smiling in a classroom with educational posters on the wall.
Interior of a wooden church with rows of pews, wooden beams on the ceiling, stained glass windows, and decorative community made banners hanging on the walls.
A collection of newspaper clippings, photos, a pair of blue glasses, and a yellow pencil on a table. The clippings reference Calthwaite and community events. The photos depict people in a community center setting.

Archive Engagement
Cumbria Archive Service, (2012–15)

Animating the archive through sculpture, story, automata and puppetry. These quiet works seeded my practice now - finding the emotional thread in record and trace.

Children in uniforms at Lady Gillford's House with two large puppets and seated adults, against a backdrop of stained glass windows.
A whimsical sculpture of the Yellow Earl with a cigar, wearing a hat and suit, next to a stylized sign and luggage, set outdoors with Lowther Castle in the background.
Toy cannons on the shore of Derwentwater with Joseph Pocklington puppet box, Lakeland hills in background.