Catherine's practice involves organising information, reframing histories, the use of materials and "undoing" rather than "doing". She talked about "invisible story-telling" adding an extra layer to her work. At least three of these things resonated with me, in part because they reflect elements of my own practice.

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Her work has a strong political element to it and she confronts difficult topics.But the part of her talk which interested me most was her re-rendering of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, a novel I know, or thought I knew, well. She has re-created the novel as a graphic work, re-focusing the narrative to give greater prominence to the Africans who feature in Conrad's original, but as marginalised and almost alien characters. 

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I have since re-read the novel and have found the new perspective, which her talk gave me, disturbing. We live in a time in which many histories are, quite rightly, being re-examined and re-framed. For a number of us that process is uncomfortable. I was born and brought up in Malaysia, a former British colony but which which still retained, throughout my childhood, much of its colonial infrastructure.

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Re-reading The Heart of Darkness with the benefit of Catherine's new vision has had a profound impact for me, reflecting not so much a re-interpretation of the novel itself but rather a change in me, and my perspective when reading it. Her talk has reminded me not only that we can be unconscious of in-built perspectives when viewing work but that we have an ongoing obligation to question and if necessary amend those perspectives.

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Her graphite drawings are haunting images. In that respect they capture much of the atmosphere of the novel, but with her very different compassionate focus. Much of her wider practice employs graphite as a medium, very heavily worked. Her website says that "The process and labour invested in the work is a direct homage to the subjects". I understand that and can see it in the drawings. 

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In my own work I too try to organise information; if not to "re-frame histories" then perhaps to "re-use" them to target a new purpose. And I like the idea of invisible story telling - something perhaps a bit enigmatic lying behind an image which, on its face, appears at first straightforward.

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These for me are the primary contexts I draw from Catherine's work.

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