Analogue collages and sculpture are made in response to the architectural styles that Richard photographed as he cycled through parts of India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Japan whist participating in residency programmes and leading education projects with the British Council. Interpretations from these journeys and the context in which these experiences occur emerge and filter over time, informing both the selection of imagery and also with the way these references are transformed and composed.

There exists universality within sculpture that is consistent in its suspension of mass within space – whilst local, cultural authenticities and mores are maintained. It is this tension between the formal universalities within this idiom and the pressures borne upon cultural identity that inform the how materials are manipulated through casting processes.

We are moulded by our experiences – our surroundings; the stories and news we hear, the people we observe and converse with. As we make our journey we take with us an impression; a stamp, a blemish, a stain, a striation – as a mark of these discoveries. This process of mould making, casting components and editing is a reflection of how we are shaped by experience. So, clay iterations pressed from plaster piece moulds that have been themselves cast from original and unique clay sculptures record these passages. These clay assemblages are fired with slips and finished with layers of acrylic washes.

Analogue collages are constructed from these pictures and with the detritus that is left after cutting. Components are woven, layered, overlapped; reprinted, edited, threaded and bound to its base and to each other – strapped in and held tight. These inform further sculptural investigations – the mould and the moulded.