After years of being drawn inescapably to ‘place’ and landscape as subjects of visual, historical and ecological fascination, I’m continually trying to discover what the attraction is, so, through both arbitrary and more directed research, taking thousands of photographs, and having an endless dialogue with myself and others, I have encountered and learned from (some recent examples) geology, wearable computing, the Bloomsbury Group, woodland management, mythology, and local history, all of which not only influence my work but extend the boundaries of my enquiries even further.
Perhaps because landscape has held my attention for so long – being in it, ‘reading’ it and photographing it – I’ve come to define it in a broader sense than the conventional meaning, so 15 years ago, with children filling my days, ‘landscape’ became my home and family life – since “home is where the heart is”, so landscapes became for me what I could see on my own horizons on a daily basis. Excursions into this domain brought the development of a strong sense of narrative, and a new attention to scale, rhythm, colour and line – formal concerns that have continued to influence and are having an increasing impact on my working approach.
As the children became independent, this domestic terrain has re-extended to include more recognisable landscape subjects, but the desire to observe and reflect recurring themes and cycles within them, still takes me to familiar surroundings with which I feel I have an intimate relationship, so recent projects have included a study of a local woodland, culminating in an exhibition “The Woods – a Year and a Day”, and a visual exploration of the diverse forms of water – also located in, and intimated by my immediate neighbourhood.
Through producing these ‘intimate landscapes’ I have begun to discern a number of equations which provide the foundation for this personal attraction to the construction and identity of place. One sequence of these equations, which are in a state of constant reconciliation, is the influence of the natural world on determining choices of human settlement, and the evidence that remains of the ensuing impact they have on that environment. And then there’s the inspiring, oppositional process of erosion or reclamation by the vegetable world.
The shifting balance between the terms of these equations creates visible sites of disruption in the everyday world and is a dynamic area to forage in, and it’s the exploration of this space, combined with where I locate myself within that search for equilibrium, that stimulates and feeds my output – photographs, video, writing and installations.
In selecting and presenting the images I’ve taken from these varied places, formal qualities, a contextual framework and a narrative theme will all be significant factors, but it’s a sequence of moments of experience in a specific place – intense fragments of time within those constantly fluctuating equations – that ultimately I hope to convey through my work.
Resume
Based in the Bristol area for many years, photography and various aspects of visual media provide the basis of both personal and paid work – freelance photography is combined with other roles that are concerned with enabling creativity in others – visiting lecturer; creative producer, project manager and facilitator for media projects at Watershed Media Centre, Bristol.
Freelance photographic work is mostly documentary with environmental and arts/media focus. I also devise and run photographic workshops for schools, young people and adults in both rural and inner city locations.
My personal work is largely concerned with ‘place’ and narrative. I am a member of LAN2D, (a national network of artist / lecturers and research students with an interest in landscape / place-oriented art practice). I enjoy collaborating with practitioners from other artforms and am also part of artists’ group, Ship of Fools. Exhibited work (group and individual) is often installation-based using still and moving image, text, sound and sculptural elements.
Exhibitions include:
Billboard and Bus projects, around Bristol 1992 and 1994.
Dreamhouse, f-stop gallery, Bath 1997.
The Woods – A Year and a Day – Year of the Artist residency, Ashton Court, Bristol 2001,
Water on the Doorstep and Bloom – North Somerset Arts weeks 2003 and 2005.
Images / essays published in/on:
Books:
Memory in Perspective – Scarlet Press and Iris 1997
365 – The Year of the Artist in the South West – Agre Books, 2001.
In Praise of Trees, catalogue – Salisbury Festival 2002
Conference papers:
ISEA 2000 (International Symposium of Electronic Arts), Paris, on the link between history of art and new technology.
