The most obvious aspect about my work is the rigorous orange and black colour scheme, a duality that serves my purpose as a baseline from which the work expands. I enjoy the contrast between the orange, which seems to emit colour and light, and the black that absorbs colour and light, rather in the manner of Yin and Yang.

My studio practice generally features construction, followed by the addition of varying materials, ranging from fabric, digital prints and found objects which are used to build a narrative. Motifs that occur regularly are the number 6, magnifying devices, self-portraits, Chinese plastic oranges, silver forks, Japanese luncharms, mt version of the Union Jack and typographic elements. To an extent, many of my works are three-dimensional collages.

This was most manifest in the series I made in 2020-21, the Inklings series of wall-based objects, all constructed over the period of the Covid 19 lockdowns in the UK . I enjoyed the juxtaposition of separate distinct elements that deliberately lead to or veer away from an easy understanding of each individual work, rather in the manner of a rebus. In constructing these works, I attempted to work in a more intuitive manner, in order to allow my creativity to emerge unhindered by pre-conceptualising the outcome, a method I continue to the present. The scale of these works leads them to feel rather like architect's models for buildings, or designs for future monuments. I generally constructed each work around a central core, which featured a particular motif, and which is naturally the focal point for each individual work. I then added peripheral items around this. Each of these works had two distinct stages in the making - the first was a rough and rapid construction phase, the second was a longer process of refining and finishing.

For me, making art is a fairly organic process that is limited only by time and space and means. Over the last 14 years of my studio practice, I have worked from tiny to large scale, and have developed ideas for much larger fabricated artworks to be placed in external locations.

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Ben Browton January 2024