The Aftermath: Atmospheric Perspectives, 2020

The Aftermath: Atmospheric Perspectives is a photographic installation exploring environmental catastrophe and ecological sensibility in the Anthropocene Epoch. It documents the aftermath of human activity dealt onto the landscape, such as mine sites, or bushfire affected areas. These images reveal human affected landscapes either left to recover or catastrophically altered, and the tensions between delicate natural forms and large-scale degraded landscapes could encourage a greater sense of care and awareness in the future.

 The installation is a mixture of large-scale landscapes and assemblages of objects that document rocks and plants in close proximity. The objects are viewed on a neutral background, in grids or enlarged to emphasize repetition of form, texture, mass and volume. The landscapes are a combination of hyper real colour and black and white to play with the viewers visual perception.  

 The work has been informed by artists that examine visual representation of nature and culture in photography. The look of the work references Tarryn Simon’s Contraband (2010). She documented, in a forensic style, objects that were confiscated by customs at the JFK airport. The project has also been informed by Herman de Vries’s eshenauer journal (2002), in which he collected plants, twigs, shells and arranged them in grids. The project is grounded in the new materialist work of Jane Bennett’s Vibrant Matter (2010) on material agency and Liz Wells Land Matters (2011) on the representation of landscape in photography.

 The resulting project examines whether an object taken out of context can inspire a dialogue with the macro landscapes and draw attention to the delicate forms of nature, thereby challenging the ways we see and understand the world around us.      

Edition of 5+ 2 AP

Archival Inkjet Prints

Landscapes: 118x80 cm

Grids: 200cmx150cm