Over many years Isobel Johnston and I have worked on various projects, from an undergraduate dissertation called Eight and a half Spaces – a study of ‘alternative’ visual arts venues in 1983, to showing our artwork together and full collaborations.
A recurrent theme in Isobel’s work is the intersections between science and art, often with a focus on the natural world. She plays with scale and perception. My work recontextualises the intricate patterns, forms and textures of materials and objects to explore their beauty and metaphoric potential. Our most recent collaborations draw on and extend our primary forms of practice.
where your imagination takes you, 2020 - 2021
In its initial stages the project was concerned with environmental and ecological issues. However, its evolution, both in terms of theme and process, broadened in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The first piece, where your imagination takes you, was completed on-line during lockdown.
The works, created by the digital manipulation of cyanotypes, became a meditation on personal and global interconnections. They open up an imaginary space that allows the viewer to travel through abstract blue to wherever the mind is taken.
di-ˈfyü-zhən, 2021
When projected onto hanging fabric, di-ˈfyü-zhən, hovers within a site echoing these times where the virtual has come to eclipse the real.
di-ˈfyü-zhən, 2021, digital animation, Articulate Project Space for Fracas 2021
