It ended with:

When I look towards the changing landscape, it is not with sadness, but with curiosity. I wonder what humans will see here, in my village, in 20 years, 100 years, 2000 years. That takes a seriously BIG stretch of the imagination!

That stretch of the imagination has been central to many of my artworks in the past year or two. Since moving house and settling into a new studio my processes have shifted around from drawing to film, to printmaking and experiments with ice and pigments. I’ve been inclined towards using Japanese paper, as it is closer to the fragility of the planet. In July this year (2023) I wrote a blogpost about that. When I began to connect my action drawings with video film things began to shift. After a year of experimenting and testing materials and pigments, the ice melts culminated in Melt & Flow images and connected videos. I used a rubber stamp and red ink to put the QR code for the film. By doing so I am making the unseen seen – which is another body of work I did a few years ago. 

The earliest ideas around that were when I took panoramic photos staring across a river or out to sea, as most people do. Rarely do we consider what is behind us when we are close to water. So I did 180 degree trunks and simultaneously photographed the landscape behind me. It was a natural progression from drawing opposite banks of the river. In 2020 I made my film As Above, So Below. It was made with several cameras and edited in a split frame, showing duality of gaze. Each camera filmed a different view at the same time. It was selected for the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize. In late 2020 I also created some Seen & Unseen films on the river banks – which I consider to be my stalker films. You can find 3 of those on my Vimeo account.

I thought I had left my panoramic period behind me (and in front!) – but recently I felt motivated to consider this issue again, but starting with vertical pano photos. Instead of in front and behind, they capture, literally, above and below a scene. Horizontal panoramics are how we usually visually consume landscapes, scanning horizons, tracking waterways, left to right and back again. With vertical pano’s it’s different. Attention is given to being grounded, supported and stabilised by your feet being planted on the ground. Instead of twisting my body from left to right and pivoting on my toes, I move my arms up, over and behind my head. It must be a strange sight for others to see, but provides great body stretches for me.

I plan to share some of these in up and coming shows. They will be first shown in The George farOpen Autumn Exhibition next week – unframed. I’ll also show one of the Ice Melt images with the QR code link.

I hope to see you there.