“Giving expression to the experience of living between two worlds I am using a number of art historical references, including Luca Giordano’s paintings and Ottoman miniature painting and tiles. In some sense the intention of using these sources is to bring out the polarity arising between the two cultures and to convey them by their aesthetic qualities alone. For example, where the miniatures are tonally flat and richly decorative, the Baroque figures emphasize form through chiaroscuro. For me these two worlds come together through their placement in an East-End of London context, being not only a place where I have lived and worked, but also as a place inherently expressive of a wider cultural diversity.”