All things grey, green and concrete

Grey, green, artificial

Green, grey, natural

Lines

Squares

Circles

All things grey, green and concrete

In the making (part 1 and 2)

In the making (part 1) 

Have been reading "Making the Geologic Now - responses to material conditions of contemporary life" edited by Elizabeth Ellsworth and Jamie Kruse and came across these passages which describe my present work and thoughts well:

"Of course, geology continues to reference rocks, tectonics, and bare forces of our planet, including deep time. But it is taking up new associations as people struggle to understand and meet new unprecedented material realities of Earth and life on Earth."(p12)

In the making (part 1), 2013. Breeze blocks, particle board in plastic, Harris rocks, artificial leather, inkjet prints,  molehill soil, concrete, giclee prints, paint

"…we are not simply surrounded by the geologic. We do not simply observe it as a landscape or panorama. We inhabit the geologic. We live within it. This means that humans are always forced to come to terms with earth forces eventually."(p 25 and 26)

In the making (part 2), 2013. Breeze blocks, Harris rocks, peat, paint, inkjet prints, artificial leather, concrete, particle board, molehill soil

                                                        In the making (part 2) - detail

                                                                            

Nature and Culture

Ecotone 1. 2013. PVC artificial leather floating on loch in Harris

                                     

                                                     

Smit marks on Finsbay sheep



Nature and culture are entangled.

Creating ecotones. New areas with different compositions.

A contrast of actions, objects and environments ; places, materials and processes.

Architecture and the natural.

Manmade
Nature 

Anthropocene - an epoch in the making

Anthropocene2, giclee print


Anthro - human
cene - new

Where human activity exceeds natural processes in many ways.

What will the rocks of the human species look like? - influenced by concrete, farming, mining, pollution, habitat destruction.

                                       Have we entered the New Man epoch or is it an epoch in the making?

Natural, manmade.

Where does one begin and the other end?                                             No longer pure.

                                    Create mixtures, hybrids of nature and culture.

The natural, manmade, architectural, human activity, natural processes meet and collide.

Ecotones.                

 A transitional zone between 2 different ecosystems where 2 different patches meet that have different ecological composition.

Tension zones.             

Edge effects.

Dismantle traditional separations. Look at ways to conjoin nature and culture.

Anthropogenic fragmentation of landscapes.

Archive, 2010-2011

Claire Danes at the Golden Globes, 2013

This photograph reminded me of some of my work from 2010 and 2011 (see below). Themes and concepts such as the interior and exterior, the natural and the man-made, permanence and the temporary, purity and impurity were explored through processes of movement, displacement and transformation. These are still prevalent in my practice where material, object, form, space, colour and concept are all equally considered.

Archive

At Context, there is no place to park, 2011
concrete, carpet, molehills

We have never been modern (macro) version 2, 2011
molehill, carpet, 4 breeze blocks

                

Cloakroom community, 2011
carpet, concrete, marmoleum, molehill soil, paint, 

              

We have never been modern (macro), 2011
6 breeze blocks, concrete, carpet, 6 molehills

Flipflop their modes of existence, 2010
wood, inner tube, funnel, glass bottle, newspaper, brick, carpet, slate, sock, magazine, tape, bouncy ball, glass bowl, metal

Totterdown Art Trail 2012

Series No.397, Old Magistrates Court (1-6), 2012. Giclee prints

Series 397, Drawings 1 and 2, 2012. Pencil on Japanese paper

Series 397, 2012. Digital prints.

                                 

Andre Shlimon, 15 minute piano recitals

     

Totterdown Art Trail,16-18th November 2012

Series No. 397, Old Magistrate's Court (1-6), giclee prints

New work to be shown at 6 Firfield Street, along with Andre Shlimon (an alternative-classical pianist) and Joseph Turp (photography and film).

Continuing my search for decorative concrete screen blocks (square in square design, no.397), I came across another wall of order, repetition and pattern at the Old Magistrate's Court in the centre of Bristol.

Yet another building that is due to be demolished. A failure. The proposed development is to provide a mixed use development consisting of a hotel, shops, car parks, student accommodation.

Designed in the 1960's and built in the 1970's, empty since 2007, this building has been deemed as 'brutalist' by English Heritage with 'little intrinsic value or significance, and which relates poorly both to the surrounding historic buildings, and the townscape generally.'

Now being used as a canvas for urban/grafitti artists, this ruination is temporarily being appreciated and explored.

Whatever your opinion of the 1970's structure, the new proposed development, the temporary urban art - this building is caught between being built and falling into disuse and decay.

My aim is to capture a sense of purity and order by reducing, refining and simplifying. To explore the precarious balance between permanence and temporality, solidity and fragility, failure and success, purity and impurity, construction and destruction, chaos and order