Landmarks

This is my current work, abstract acrylic monoprints. My work is based on exploring the idea that we are walking on our history and it is easy to assume that the countryside has always been as we see it now.

Over the millennia, humankind’s relationship with the land and nature has changed beyond recognition; in the impact that humans have had on the landscape and the world and how that in turn has rebounded on us; through pollution, climate change and social, political and economic elements.

As an artist my interest is in the hidden nature of that relationship and how it has changed. What we now often think of as a ‘natural’ landscape has in fact been plundered, de-forested, farmed, re-forested and sculpted through human intervention and industry for centuries. The memory of all this activity has often been lost in the passing of time and sometimes only the faintest traces remain on or just below the surface.

My current work explores the idea of these hidden layers and what happens when they are exposed either by erosion or archaeology. How is our understanding of the landscape and nature changed by the realisation of our historic intervention and interactions? Human pressures on the land for housing, food and recreation can only increase and land ownership remains symbolic of wealth and power.

The work also proposes a new and different way of viewing the land, looking down as we walk unaware over our history, rather than the elements of traditional landscape painting. In an increasingly Urban society I think we now have a better understanding of how loaded the word ‘Countryside’ actually is. What will we leave as a legacy for future generations to uncover?