Biography
My professional background is in writing fundraising applications for small charities and community groups, working with migrant and refugee organisations and steelbands in Ladbroke Grove, West London.
I have a long association with Metronomes Steel Orchestra, and co-authored their first proposal for a Steelpan Study Centre to be based in the old factory building in Meanwhile Gardens.
I did this while working as a volunteer. I haven’t been able to undertake paid work for a number of years due to ill health. I have Schizoaffective Disorder, a combination of symptoms of Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder.
I also have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and I’m dyslexic.
I was late-diagnosed as autistic at the age of 57. Do I ever wish I had been diagnosed as a child. One of my three sisters has two autistic children. We believe our mother was autistic.
The Fern Pattern is a therapeutic art project, intended to help me better understand my neurodivergent experience, and that of others.
The central theme is resilience.
I am interested in asking questions: relentlessly questioning in the way that the autistic and other neurodivergent do so well.
I am uneasy with the current randiness in the arts for ideological certainty. I look at the work of many contemporary artists and curators and wonder what is their problem with question marks? What have question marks ever done to them?
One of my favourite quotes is from the Jewish poet and resistance fighter Hannah Szenes:
“Life is a fleeting question mark”.
It’s from the poem “One Two Three”, written while in prison in the months leading up to her execution by the Nazis.
When I was in my twenties I built up an impressive homelessness portfolio, including Soho doorways, hostels, B&Bs, squats, parks, cemeteries, abandoned factories, disused warehouses and road traffic islands (seriously).
I have one O Level (Geography, Grade C).
I like to bore people about being vegan.
I was born in August 1965, which makes me 60.
I’m Tony. He/Him.
The Fern Pattern 