Landscapes
I don’t see the distinction between 2D art and 3D art as particularly clear cut. Paintings, which we accept as 2D works, in fact have a physical surface which renders them a subtle 3-dimensionality. Drawings, which we know to be 2D, exert the same kind of partition of visual space into positive space and negative space as do sculptures, which we know to be 3D. And meanwhile sculptures or installations, which we know are 3D, are in fact only seen by the viewer from one direction at a time, the visual examination in effect a sequence of 2 dimensional projections as the work is examined from all angles.
This grey area between the 2D and the 3D forms the basis of some of my work and I have produced a series of depictions of landscape which attempt to move away from the traditional.
Earlier works include a depiction of the industrial landscape of my childhood in the north west of England. The north west was the site of the industrial revolution and one hangover from this was 100s of red brick industrial chimneys, most sadly now gone. But as an image they are so evocative of the north west as a place. I worked up three landscapes by creating arrays of drawings of chimneys in shades of black and red and white ink, drawn on post-it notes, which are representative of disposable office paper, and presented as arrays on industrial brown wrapping paper.
They were drawn in soot-based Japanese inks, which have an incredibly long life and connect the drawings to the chimney’s own industrial past. The non-archival nature of the post-its, however, means the paper support will eventually fade and disintegrate, disappearing just like the real chimneys in the landscape.
Following this I moved on to natural landscapes, concentrating on painting the natural elements that we see and then recreating the landscape by reconstructing images from the constituent pieces.
