Make Over was is the first outcome of a two year Arts + Minds Residency based in Newtown, Ebbw Vale, Wales.

These moving image portraits unpick this nostalgic moment by allowing the viewer to witness the attempt of the 'actors' to hold these iconic poses. But just as the re-ordering of the furniture in the home only temporarily creates a shift of personal perspective, so the sitter falls prey to the inevitable. The attempt to cheat the boundaries of time and reality are undone as muscles twitch and struggle to relax, heads shake and gradually droop as physiological control gives way to the forces of gravity.

The installation was created from material created on a special residency day that bought together staff and residents from the Tai Calon Community. The familiar ambience of Newtown Community Hall was given a nostalgic twist through the use of costume, music and afternoon tea. An atmospheric ground ideally set for the individual transformations that followed. Yards of carefully selected fabric were shaped and pinned by the vintage specialist, Able Mabel to give the illusion of exclusive ball gowns. Props and pieces of inexpensive costume jewellery completed the preferred look – a classic Hollywood style movie-star makeover. Eight photographic portraits were also produced.