My practice explores inner experience, kinship and queerness. It operates through cycles of intuition, iteration and integration. The work takes form through objects, installations, works on paper and speculative fiction.

Attachment Theory, a recent body of small-scale sculptural work, uses objects and assemblage to experiment with and re-arrange representations of relatedness. In a play between objectification and subjectivity, identities shift, past narratives are suggested, and protopian future configurations emerge.

When I make large-scale installations one of my objectives is to create moments of presentness for the audience, so that the space fully occupies all aspects of their experience. I often use darkness to slow people down, giving them solitude and allowing them to feel their way through the work.

Objectness is a recurring theme in my speculative fiction, where humans often find themselves turning into objects or developing obsessive relationships with the non-human. The process is porous; writing and sculpture become iterations of one another.

I’ve worked with Historic Environment Scotland, National Theatre Scotland, Tate and the Mayor of London, National Trust, ITV, Opera North, Cambridge Junction and Kettles Yard. I’ve returned to Cambridge after living in Berlin, Glasgow and Toronto. I teach in institutions across the UK, most recently at Glasgow School of Art.

CJ Mahony

(they / them)

https://cjmahony.com