My work is about the seduction of play. Using carved toy animals as set pieces, I create fantasy interactions with the environment. Toys allow me to attempt a balance between light-hearted and worry regarding issues such as environmental calamity and species collapse. The animals wear expressions that skirt the line between hopeful and pessimistic.

As objects of play, my works address how my conception of the environment is influenced largely by fantasy and a fairytale sense of how the world works. Despite knowing this, it’s still really easy to forget just how pervasive the imagination is.

In the dim light of my studio at night, it’s not uncommon for me to get spooked by the silhouette of one of my sculptures - to forget that I made them. It’s not the realism or their gestures that really frighten me, it’s the fact that play operates with or without my permission.