Digitally merged photography, printed on Foamex and cold laminated
Series of three images, each 591mm x 591mm
Exhibited at the Exeter Community Centre Summer Show, June 2015 to January 2016.
Available for purchase as archival quality prints and greetings cards
I was preparing to take a photograph, when I caught a flash of deep orange as my finger momentarily touched the camera lens. It led me to wonder whether I could capture somehow not just objects or people touching each other, but the sense of touch itself. Experimenting with finger and hand, obscuring more or less of the lens, nearer or further, sometimes cupping the lens, I took twelve photographs. None is a block of solid colour, but each finely graded reflecting the sensory patterns in the skin. Some are intense warm oranges or hot reds and pinks; others are light cool whites shading to cold steel greys. I arranged the twelve Touches into a grid of four by three, just touching each other, neurons firing as they come close. And twice more, to produce a series of three images: Alight, Unless, and J’adoube. The images in the series may be viewed individually. Together they form the Touch:Triptych. We all needs must live lightly on this precious planet.
Available in the Shop
Unframed archival quality prints and greetings cards are available to buy online:
Alight, Unless, J’adoube, details from Alight as cards only
Please get in touch if you are interested in purchasing the prints on Foamex or other material.
Images
A. Touch-Triptych
B. Series
1. Alight
It was a sunny afternoon in August, and I was having tea with a friend. A robin approached to tidy up the crumbs of cake under the table, seemingly used to human company and unafraid to hop among our legs. I deliberately dropped a few more crumbs. Then, after a pause, I thought I would try something new. I crumbled another small piece of cake, bent double in my seat, and offered my hand to the ground. And then I waited, hardly able to breathe, both for the bending and for the fear of disturbance. The robin darted in and back, picking at crumbs nearby. I waited. When they were gone, I waited. Then, miraculously, it came to me and picked at a crumb from my hand. It hopped back, head and eyes all alertness, and skipped close again to finish up. It picked so lightly that I felt nothing… save the excitement of a fleeting encounter with this wild bright bird.
2. Unless
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’ But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’
John 20:19-25
3. J’adoube
Article 4: The act of moving the pieces
4.1 Each move must be made with one hand only.
4.2 Provided that he first expresses his intention (for example by saying “j’adoube” or “I adjust”), the player having the move may adjust one or more pieces on their squares.
4.3 Except as provided in Article 4.2, if the player having the move deliberately touches on the chessboard:
a. one or more of his own pieces, he must move the first piece touched which can be moved
b. one or more of his opponent’s pieces, he must capture the first piece touched which can be captured
c. one piece of each colour, he must capture the opponent’s piece with his piece or, if this is illegal, move or capture the first piece touched which can be moved or captured. If it is unclear, whether the player’s own piece or his opponent’s was touched first, the player’s own piece shall be considered to have been touched before his opponent’s.
excerpt from the World Chess Federation (FIDE) Handbook, E.I.01A. Laws of Chess
C. Touches
