While studying at Birmingham City University in 2008-11 my practise documented the every-day-life which was inspired by the concept of capturing the public spending time within busy environments, for example travelling on the 11c Bus Route, nights out on Broad Street, and the Indoor and Outdoor Markets.
I moved to Herne Bay, a Kent seaside town in 2011 to start a new body of work depicting beach huts, popular at English resorts from the eighteenth century onwards, with both George III and Queen Victoria having their own wheeled bathing machines. In the Nineteenth century they were pulled into the sea by horses, so the Victorians could preserve their modesty. Today they still follow a traditional design, with some additional changes such a small compact kitchen/diners and are often internally customised to provide home-comforts on a much smaller scale.
What inspires me about the beach huts is the concept of their functional and un-functional role that attracts visitors and locals, their multi-coloured architectural abstractions that mark out many of our British seaside towns. Unused during the long winter months, awaiting the arrival of the new holiday season, the beach huts are often used for storing beach furniture, inflatables, small boats and surfboards. It’s an environment without windows and only one door that lets in a certain amount of sunlight, with limited-space and is perhaps not quite the home-from-home, it’s a place that gives a sense of comfort, a place to escape to, for relaxing and taking in a calm setting of solitude. Costing as much as a small flat, and cannot legally be used as a dwelling, the beach hut holds modest comfort for leisure activity, with a great demand of becoming almost a second-home for some owners.
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