Turning The Tide, 2020-2023
Turning The Tide (2023)
https://www.blurb.co.uk/bookstore/invited/9891472/650a07ef558bbea72853bc18bf960601138f08cd
“I think, looking at it all, that we can turn the tide within the next 12 weeks and I’m absolutely confident that we can send coronavirus packing in this country.”
Boris Johnson, 19 March 2020
During Lockdown from March 2020, the adjacent school field was blocked off with a six foot steel fence. We were now enclosed. Using the limitations set by the boundaries of the gardens and the timeframe of 12 weeks or 84 days, I photograph the intermittent play of light and shadow, holding the image before it disappears, impermanent, short moments of beauty existing only as digital data recorded with my camera.
I wanted also shadows of myself to be projected on surfaces in my immediate surroundings where I was trapped, real and physical yet ephemeral and intangible, the quality of the light changing its appearance, different surfaces creating more depth, the photographed objects adding features to the shadow, making the visual information tactile, emotionally charged, echoing my fear and powerlessness.
I was fascinated by chasing shadows in the dull monotonous repetition in those 84 days of lockdown. The sun coming into the space made everything more bearable but created false hope, the virus still sweeping through the UK, those promised 12 weeks long gone. Staying at home felt like watching myself disappearing along with the illusion of my relevance, however the recorded shadows mark my presence.
Embracing these transient qualities makes me reflect on the issues around permanence, how quickly everything changes and is gone, it feels like literally the luck of the draw.
Each images is 25cm high X 18.8 cm wide, Giclée ink jet print on INNOVA White Matte 285g mounted on foam board
84 mounted photographs are organised in an interrupted grid with 6 rows and 18 columns with equal sized gutters, the installation size is at least 165cm high and 400 cm wide
https://www.blurb.co.uk/bookstore/invited/9891472/650a07ef558bbea72853bc18bf960601138f08cd
“I think, looking at it all, that we can turn the tide within the next 12 weeks and I’m absolutely confident that we can send coronavirus packing in this country.”
Boris Johnson, 19 March 2020
During Lockdown from March 2020, the adjacent school field was blocked off with a six foot steel fence. We were now enclosed. Using the limitations set by the boundaries of the gardens and the timeframe of 12 weeks or 84 days, I photograph the intermittent play of light and shadow, holding the image before it disappears, impermanent, short moments of beauty existing only as digital data recorded with my camera.
I wanted also shadows of myself to be projected on surfaces in my immediate surroundings where I was trapped, real and physical yet ephemeral and intangible, the quality of the light changing its appearance, different surfaces creating more depth, the photographed objects adding features to the shadow, making the visual information tactile, emotionally charged, echoing my fear and powerlessness.
I was fascinated by chasing shadows in the dull monotonous repetition in those 84 days of lockdown. The sun coming into the space made everything more bearable but created false hope, the virus still sweeping through the UK, those promised 12 weeks long gone. Staying at home felt like watching myself disappearing along with the illusion of my relevance, however the recorded shadows mark my presence.
Embracing these transient qualities makes me reflect on the issues around permanence, how quickly everything changes and is gone, it feels like literally the luck of the draw.
Each images is 25cm high X 18.8 cm wide, Giclée ink jet print on INNOVA White Matte 285g mounted on foam board
84 mounted photographs are organised in an interrupted grid with 6 rows and 18 columns with equal sized gutters, the installation size is at least 165cm high and 400 cm wide
