Twitching Curtains and Porch Swing was installed on the front porch of a suburban house that I lived in during my Fellowship at Cleveland Institute of Art, Ohio in 1994. It was my first public realm installation and marked a shift from my training as a painter and two-dimensional work to making site-specific installations. The work was made for a domestic stage – a porch – where life could be played out in full-view of the passing public, unlike the private, back gardens of British suburbia. The ghost-like Porch Swing floats back and forth in the breeze and the Twitching Curtains flicker on the eye as the viewer moves past the screen. Both pieces are made from thread wound tightly around a frame. A floral pattern is stencilled onto the Curtains which is only visible when viewed at an oblique angle. At night the porch is illuminated at the time when residents return home from work, creating an unexpected oasis of light and colour in an otherwise dark suburban street.
