Dye sub prints on chiffon fabric with steel framing, approx 18.5” square
Joint exhibition in the Dartington Garden Room Gallery
30 March – 18 April 2017
The Garden Room Gallery is a lovely space for a show, just down the hill from the main buildings on the Dartington Hall estate.
It was a first opportunity to show my new framing of “Green|Blue”. The images visualise the Environment Agency dataset on Risk of Flooding from Rivers and Sea, published in March 2015, for 21 river catchment areas around the south coast. I used the dye sublimation and hot press technique to print the images onto chiffon fabric, and engineered the hanging from eyelets, ball chain and connectors, and perforated steel strips.
Nature repeats its patterns, and each catchment is rotated to appear as a ‘tree’. The images reflect the geography of the surrounding area; the trees are spindly where there is little land at risk in Cornwall, and very solid in the low-lying parts of Somerset.
What seems to be the most solid and robust is in reality the most fragile and vulnerable. “Green|Blue” is about changing the perspective, looking slant, and embracing a new understanding and humility. When we pour concrete and steel into flood defences and build on flood plains, instead of respecting natural processes, we create flood risk. The work provokes reflection on juxtapositions of map-reality, nature-engineering, and beauty-threat.
It was also an opportunity, almost as an afterthought, to hang my new “Drop Slow Tears” mobile – the eight catchments in Devon laser engraved onto acryclic tear drops. I have to say I was very happy with how it has turned out.
It was a joy to show my work alongside that of Liz McGowan, an environmental artist from Norfolk. And I want to extend a big thank you to Richard Povall for curating the space, helping with hanging, and organising the private viewing.
