Linocut on paper

Signed, dated and titled in pencil

Numbered from the edition of 12

Image size: 430 x 275 mm

Paper size: 510 x 340 mm

Contact the Studio on 0207 407 6561 for framing options and prices

Every print sold comes with a free copy of the accompanying book 'A Common Place', which includes reproductions of all the artworks and poems created for the project

Chloé was paired with the writer Jaclyn Clarabut for the Common Place project.

Jaclyn: Lots of people have learned new things during lockdown - I'm thrilled that I gained access to a brilliant artist's way of looking at the world. And learned some French - my partnered artist Chloé's native language - along the way.

Through email and WhatsApp images Chloé generously gave me an insight into how she works and, crucially, where she works. We found that we were both working at the top of the stairs - writing at the top an old twisted staircase for me and sketching at the top of a Jardin d'escalier for Chloé. 'stairs' became our common place and Chloé introduced me to the French phrase - l'esprit d'escalier. I'd never heard the phrase before but I fell instantly in love with it. I twisted its meaning for my poem - it became a haunting presence rather than a witty line that you think of just when the moment has passed. This project and that phrase will stay with me for a very long time.

L’esprit de l’escalier, by Jaclyn Clarabut

She orbits the stairs

this ammonite girl in the Snoopy slippers

polyester nightdress knotted over bent knees.

Long grooves of darkness

pinch her nose

eyes electrify

as dread spirit

ghost of all unsaid

charges through air

dropping daggered prisms

that shred the kaleidoscope curtains.

She’s alone

curled like the surface of a snail shell,

waiting for mum

to come home.