Spitscapes

Many of us, or our loved ones, have suffered from a serious illness that require the intervention of medical professionals.   Thoughts can manifest themselves during periods of reflection both during and after periods of ill health.  One question that put me on the path to this project is ‘what occurs in the body that makes it a site that cells can develop and grow into harmful manifestations that if left untreated, kill you?’  This piqued my interest in bacteria, something that comes from within that we all have, can destroy us and consume matter but we also require it to a certain degree to stay in good health.  Using the synergies of microscopy, analogue and digital photography I created an environment that enabled bacteria to consume and degrade my subject.  The resultant images, obtained using microscopy, revealed desolate landscapes that reflect the fragility of life and its mutability.

Materialism and embodiment; a photograph implying the presence of a body and a physicality of an image and its relationship to the viewer.  There is an increase in cultural theorists considering nature, technology and matter as animate or active, influencing ‘new materialists’ approaches to the arts and engaging in ways in which the human body can become a medium for images  “that comes with its own sensual properties” (Photography; A Critical Introduction). 

Experimentation with 2d, textiles, resin, sculpture and photobooks have played an important part in discovering how tangible the intangible can become in a multitude of approaches.

The images have been exhibited in both 2D and textile formats in Surrey, Slovakia, Rome, Leeds, Bath and London.