The origins of the works pre-date the Pandemic by several years, but when I finished them it was 2022 and everyone thought I’d made the masks specifically for this moment. I made the masks in 2015.

I have always been interested in the Greek mythological Harpy figure, though – frequently used as a slur towards women. Harping on, the Harpy, the being that just won’t stop screeching. Here Harpies wear a mask of their choosing, watching and knowing what is to come. There is a conscientious silence and a portentous weight to a mask of paper, made so long before we all had to wear them.

The use of taut embroidery threads suspending my works reference another Greek myth – the Bed of Procrustes. A tale full of horror, about a man who seeks perfection in his guests and adjusts the bodies of those who don’t fit with gruesome particularity.