Fern Worsley

This is a story in two parts: Buoyant and rejuvenated in the water, time is suspended with space for uninterrupted thought. No one can reach me out here. Ocean detritus cling and wrap their tendrils around me. Some inflating and some sinking, pulling me this way and that. Bubble wrap skin and foil balloon arms. What have I become? I am me, yet different. There has been a transmutation. My body is not the same. A sea creature who is monstrous and abject? At once compelling and frightening. Banished from the land, my new home is the sea, with a net for my prey and my abjection. 

The crocheted net was inspired by a commission for bespoke giant crochet hooks made by the wonderful Philippa Stewart for Focal Point Gallery to engage the public in an interactive artwork for their recent community exhibition, S for Southend. Big thanks to both for the loan of the hook.

Fern Worsley is an artist and arts facilitator born in Scarborough, spent her formative years in London, and now based in Southend-on-Sea. She graduated with a BA (Hons) Fine Art at University Centre South Essex College in 2021. Fern works at Focal Point Gallery and is Director of theblokhousestudio CIC, an artist-run studio and project space in Southend-on-Sea.