Thea is a cook, artist and gardener from Paisley. She combines the three in a practice that seeks to feed back into the earth through careful cyclic use of materials found across the kitchen and garden. She runs a low waste, organic kitchen at Cafe OTO, devising affordable, seasonal, nourishing menus using produce she grows at Growing Communities’ urban farms; and uses food/plant scraps to make natural dyes, ink, photographic developers and print emulsions. She studied music at Clare College Cambridge and collects field recordings which inform her own improvisations on tape and occasional performances. She is drawn to visceral imperfect bodily forms, marled, messy, muddy textures, early music, bells, overtones, drones, domestic and folkloric rituals and the dark theatricality of sacred spaces which seep into her photography, drawings, video and sound works. She is interested in dissecting and collaging together the ingredients, materials, tools, sights and sounds experienced across her intensely physical and sensory work as a cook and gardener into a strange, deformed and surreal light that feeds her reality.

She writes recipes for Infant Tree’s regular newsletter and keeps a personal website of images and writing. 

https://theasands.wixsite.com/photography