Untitled 1, 2

Hand embroidery on digitally printed linen, 2019, approx. 185 x 135 cm each

These hand embroidered pieces on digitally printed linen represent a conversation between imagery derived from neural-networks and painstakingly slow needlework that speaks to the tension between sensuality and automation; bodies and machines; instant gratification and that which is nourishing long-term. In Untitled 1, uncanny creatures devised by an AI (Google's Deep Dream) float in a digitally manipulated milieu of clouds and sky, a vividly coloured and textured giant Medusuzoa is embroidered over the sublimation print.

Untitled 2 is, in a way, the reverse: the ubiquitous cloud logo -- such a powerful symbol of digitalisation in the world today -- has been fed into the same image-generating AI, producing a version of the logo revised by the very kind of technology it seeks to represent, while hand-drawn clouds and virus cells are embroidered in varigated thread over the top. Untitled 1 and Untitled 2 are the results of searching in the technicolor slime for visual metaphors that might capture the embodied digital in all of its allure and threat.