United Europe, 2022

United Europe maps the publically available information the artist uncovered about the work's private commissioner and her immediate family on the Internet. Taking only the commissioner's name as a starting point, the artist cross-referenced information she found on social media, Google searches and Google Reverse Image Search and used these tools/leads to extensively investigate the life of the commissioner, her husband and their children. The map reveals all the European locations that the artist's research could connect the family to – places of work, residence and education, business interests across the continent, along with more personal information, including holidays they have taken as a family. Though the work only maps a snapshot of the family's life, as seen through the lens of the artist and the Internet, the work lays bare the extent to which the personal details of our lives are recorded online whether or not we actively participate in, or are aware of sharing these details.

United Europe forms part of an ongoing series of works which use European road maps to create collages of new imagined lands. The first of these works, United European Union (1999), a map taking the form of the United Kingdom but comprised of non-UK European towns and cities, was made to celebrate the UK as an integral part of the European Union. At that point, the UK had been part of the EU for the entirety of the artist's life, and she had benefitted from many of the opportunities and possibilities the Union afforded, including studying, travelling, working and exhibiting her work in EU countries. Following Brexit, the artist revisited this theme with an ongoing series of small format collages United Kingdom / European Union (2021-present). As the title of this later series makes clear, the UK is no longer part of the EU. Nevertheless, the artist defiantly intertwines UK towns and cities with places from across the European continent, perhaps optimistic of an alternative reality.