In the studio with Sam Porritt

So tell us about your work. It's a sort of relief landscape drawing, made with hair, stones and peanuts…

'I knew that I wanted the work to stand out from the surface and to use random materials. So the stones give a gesture of the subterranean and the hair, which is my own, is a bit unruly like water and looks in places like it's “splashing”. I was also thinking of language in that hair grows and water flows. The work has been described as “conceptual landscape”, which as a term I quite like.'

And the nuts?

'They add this notion of clogging and also direction. Plus peanuts are slightly daft. I tried a lot of different nut options before deciding on unskinned peanuts, although this is probably the first and last time that I'll use them in my work.'

If you don't mind me saying, the work has a certain awkwardness…

'Yes, the whole thing is slightly wrong-headed and could even be described as ugly. My work can be quite contradictory but that's also what opens up interesting ideas.'

What about the title 'Me & You Then Everyone Else…', which you've also written into it in string?

'I chose those words because they're slightly familiar and make a very general, prosaic statement. Plus they also relate to the way that each of us who have made work in the flat, beginning with myself, then nominated the next artist.'

You seem to be exploring that gap between what something literally is and how it might be interpreted…

'I've always liked the fact that the language of visual art has no precise definitions but I'm realising that the meanings of words can have have as many nuances too.'

'Nothing Is Forever' continues at South London Gallery until September 5 2010