This Is A Given This Is Unknown

So my latest creation was made for an exhibition i did here at Konstfact in Stockholm "This is a give, This is unknown". I went back to my old routes of plaster blocks, but just a little different, i have been feeling slightly lost and uninspired here in sweden without my good old west coast of Scotland! I started exploring the idea of "impressions" and my impressions of my surrounding environment. These thoughts link back to a MA visual anthropology course i did "fieldwork in Sweden". I started to explore the natural environment within an urban space. I took my visual research and incorporated them into the bellow pieces. Each of the items or natural matter used in the pieces are taken from different locations around Stockholm.

(above) working method.

(two above pictures) Each plaster block and detail.

1st block- Birch bark inset with sand surface.

2nd block - bark sketch with sand surface.

3rd block - ink bark colograph in plaster with sand surface.

(two above pictures) pieces in situ at exhibition.

Large Format Photography

So for the last two weeks i had the opportunity to take a large format photography course, very interesting and makes me want to invest in one of these extremely expensive pieces of equipment! Here are a few (pretty poor) examples of the photos i took. Experimenting with the different plates for depth of the field and focal areas. Plan to take some more photos while i am still in sweden with the opportunity to use this camera....starting on the roof!

Three beaches

This project which is nearly finished, the frames/boxes still need to be framed with glass. But each frame or box cases a different beach/area from the coastline of Kintyre. Each one contains a photo litho of the area, a litho print drawing of an object from the area and three different objects which i have collected from each area. The objects are all natural matter, from flints, driftwood, shells, shark eggs and interesting seaweeds. The top beach is on the Learside, the middle is Southend/Carskiey and the bottom is the Gauldrins.

(above) Flints that i found on a beach on the Learside road in Kintyre.

(Above and below) Sea Urchins.

Latest Litho Prints

This term i have been doing lithographs, both hand drawn lithos and photograph litho plates.

More land art - stone cairn

During the summer i spent some time camping at the Gauldrins and tried to build a stone cairn, its more just an experiment to see how to construct a cairn, some time soon i want to build a camera obscura cairn, where i can record the coastal environment through a natural source built by the materials from the area.

I love the vast selection of different stone colours available at this beach, such a diverse palate of colours and textures to work with.

Sketchbook Pages

Sketchbook pages, sketches and photographs from the beach.

Land-art

This photography is just part of some experiments that i did over easter. I was looking at Andy Goldsworthy's "Beach Cairn", where he took different coloured stones to create land-art or sculptures, i loved his use of natural material and wanted to make my own attempt, as feeble as it may be! The red stone was great to use as a contrast against the other stones, another aspect to this image is that you can see the curvature of the earth on the horizon of the sea. This will defiantly be something i am going to work further with, in a much larger scale and grander attempt.