Out of the Woods

The starting point for this body of work was woodland and an attached field about a mile from my house. The land is in the early stages of regeneration from intensive arable to mixed woodland and a prime material in this process are plastic tree guards - but within the frame of consideration there is also a diverse combination of both natural growth and pragmatic land management.

Within the work the affordances of surface play a very significant role - specifically the ridged markings on the inside of the tubes reflect a  verticality which are also echoed throughout the wood, in the trees, grass, fence posts, even bodies in landscape. The two techniques of printmaking and casting have allowed me to ‘take impressions’ from place, to sense or ‘hear’ it, rather like a call and response.

The glass rod installation (More Than an Inkling) also speaks to that verticality, but the use of these thin lines of light whispers of less tangible elements, the play of light and sound within a natural space such as a wood.

The idea of triangulation is a recurring theme in repeated locational motifs and reflects ideas that span across geographical and scientific understandings of place.