These three related works were made as part of the utk project Challenging Rooms. Each piece was made in response to some stimulus identified during a preliminary visit to the household. At Helen’s flat this was the discovery of an old set of Shakespeare volumes on the window sill overlooking the local duck pond, at Alison’s house the work grew out of the knowledge that she and her family were shortly to experience the chaos and reordering brought about by moving to another country, while at Kate’s I was struck by the collection of avocado stones piled on the kitchen window sill, and combined this with a dry bureaucratic text on working hours, which was on her desk upstairs.

Rustlings Road
Red Books for Green (3 bound books 10 x 15cm each)
The three Shakespeare plays that include the word ‘Duck’ were re-formatted to draw attention to the quacks hidden within the text. Bound into books, they were placed alongside the 13 little red volumes of Shakespeare which were already on the window sill overlooking the local duck pond.

Kenwood Bank
2744 ways to get from Sheffield to Sheveningen (sectioned comb bound book 21 x 15cm)
The upheaval and disruption of the householder’s impending move from Sheffield to Sheveningen is anticipated by the anagrammatic disruption of the names of the starting and finishing cities and countries. The phrases so formed are presented in a sliced book, allowing 2744 different journeys to be made.


Fulmer Road
Avocado/Avvocato (Audio CD and booklet)
Two element of Kate's home drew me in, the large number of avocado stones and the European Working Times Directive, with which she was working. The entire text of this legal document was reset using only the letters A,V,O,C,A,D & O, substitution being made when a letter was not available from this esoteric virtual printing set. The result was read out by an Italian speech synthesiser, a choice driven by the wordplay of Avvocato, an Italian lawyer, and Avocado the household's favourite fruit. Despite valiant and persistent efforts, the word avocado never actually occurs in the 45 minute monologue.

Challenging Rooms (November 1998 to April 1999): using a newspaper advertisement inviting people to offer domestic spaces for the group to work in, three houses were selected with work being produced in a short space of time responding to both house and the occupant. The focus of the project was the semi-public “opening” which provided an opportunity to discuss the work with an audience unfamiliar with contemporary art.