Homemaking is full of repetition, patterns, processes that are repeated day after day, year after year – this is true of many species including humans. The process of nesting, gathering materials, trying to piece them together, repair it when unfavourable weather or other circumstances take their toll. The incessant labour and repeated patterns across generations exist within nature and the human species which has tried to set itself apart. 

The works within these series explore homemaking within these times of crises. Invasive species, domestic debris, scavenged materials combine to reflect a process of nesting within the Anthropocene, in an environment entangled with human activity and waste. Referencing the coots nest, these small attempts at home combine the flotsam and jetsam of modern life with urban biomaterials. 

As a series they explore precarity – systems and structures which are just about holding together, materials re-purposed for a new use. The work draws on 

my Jewish heritage, unusual, environmentalist upbringing, and current situation as a domestically incompetent new mum trying to make a home. 

The work address an ongoing concern with how humans re-integrate themselves back into their environment along with all the just we have created. Nesting and homemaking is used as a theme and process as it incorporates and proposes a multi-species perspective.  

The work is from an ongoing series and the Attempts at Home are all numbered – reflecting the repetitive ongoing process which they reference. The work exists as small assemblages and photographs. Some structures only exist as photographs as the Attempt the documented was too fragile to last. 

The ingredients lists are part of the work and they are created entirely from bio-materials and recycled domestic debris.  

My mum is a radical environmentalist who lives an off grid more sustainable life, and these structures are part of a repetitive process of trying to reconcile my less sustainable lifestyle choices and my work in nature as a therapeutic/community gardener.