Remains in the Landscape
Standing stones are incredibly evocative objects, natural stones shaped by human hands thousands of years ago and yet surviving to the present day. Humans have always altered the environment around them and these marks from the past are preserved in fragments in our landscape. I echo this process of continual breaking down and building up in my mixed media work. Having studied Archaeology at Edinburgh University I worked as an archaeologist for 15 years, and this experience strongly informs my artwork. Recently I have worked with Historic Scotland on Big Draw Art projects and in 2015 my work 'Fragments' was displayed at the European Association of Archaeologists Conference.
Figuring the Past
These pictures are a response to the actual remains of Ancient Rome and Greece combined with the ideas and characters found in the rich mythology that these civilisations bequeathed us. In 2018 I exhibited a selection of these works at Cambridge University's Museum of Classical Archaeology.
Roman Rooms
These pictures are a response to visits to Pompeii, Ostia and Herculaneum in Italy. In the collograph prints I am exploring the evocative ancient Roman rooms, now empty of inhabitants, and the abstract qualities of their once intricate decoration. In 2018 I exhibited a selection of these works at Cambridge University's Museum of Classical Archaeology.
Cretan Excavations
These pictures are a response to a visit to partially excavated site of Roman Gortyn in Crete. I was intrigued by the relationship of the past with the present and the contrast between the vital growth of olive trees and the ruined relics of a past society. In 2018 I exhibited a selection of these works at Cambridge University's Museum of Classical Archaeology.
Fragments
A plate, broken into twenty pieces.
Twenty torn fragments of old prints,
Each with a story to tell.
Piece by piece, digging into the past.
From skyscrapers and plane trails,
to war memorials and arrow heads,
to standing stones and a human skull,
to ammonites and oakstone, deepest buried.
Excavated from the earth,
To form a world.
On one level, Fragments is a journey through my own past, drawing on my previous career as an archaeologist and using scraps of prints I created throughout my years as an artist. Many of these prints reflect significant moments in my own life, from my childhood in Derbyshire to my adult life in Scotland. On another level, Fragments addresses the relationship between past and present in society as a whole, depicting how reconstruction of the past through the study of history and archaeology is used to construct the identity and values of society in the present. I hope that Fragments will also prompt the reflection that our present will one day be the past. Future generations will have to construct their identity from the fragments we leave behind – do we wish our legacy to be a world shattered by conflict and environmental destruction?
Twenty torn fragments of old prints,
Each with a story to tell.
Piece by piece, digging into the past.
From skyscrapers and plane trails,
to war memorials and arrow heads,
to standing stones and a human skull,
to ammonites and oakstone, deepest buried.
Excavated from the earth,
To form a world.
On one level, Fragments is a journey through my own past, drawing on my previous career as an archaeologist and using scraps of prints I created throughout my years as an artist. Many of these prints reflect significant moments in my own life, from my childhood in Derbyshire to my adult life in Scotland. On another level, Fragments addresses the relationship between past and present in society as a whole, depicting how reconstruction of the past through the study of history and archaeology is used to construct the identity and values of society in the present. I hope that Fragments will also prompt the reflection that our present will one day be the past. Future generations will have to construct their identity from the fragments we leave behind – do we wish our legacy to be a world shattered by conflict and environmental destruction?
