Change Of State
When I think about creating a collection, I often draw on what’s going on in my life at the time. This collection is all about change. I always seem to include a lot of buildings in my research and it was particularly easy for this collection - buildings often mark moments of change and transition in our environment. One image that you can see reflected most easily in the collection is the image of the development of the city of Philadelphia, the shifting boundaries of the coastline and the city. Other images show Berlin just after the fall of the Berlin wall, from a book I found in a charity shop documenting the shifting of a society. Other pictures show chemical transitions from one state to another or the change of crystalline structure. I find this approach to research one of the most inspiring, starting with an idea and finding its manifestations in the world. Drawing together different resources and finding the points where they can work together in a piece. Working this way helps jolt me out of what’s familiar to discover new ideas. In this collection I developed a very delicate way of casting to support the fragile organic shapes using supportive wires, even with a lot of practice this technique is still tricky but I think it creates some of the most effective end results. My aim for this collection is a feeling of balance, the point where the scales tip, with pieces that feel both organic and manmade, shifting one to the other.