De Magnete (2012)
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The Earth’s magnetic field strength was measured by Carl Friedrich Guass in 1835 and has been repeatedly measured since then, showing a relative decay of about 10% over the last 150 years. It is a supreme irony that we live in a contemporary scenario in which global culture, predicated on the notion of progress, is in fact entirely based on the relentless destruction of nature. In a new body of work, I have begun to interrogate the contradictions inherent in present-day human thought and behaviour, especially with respect to the disconnect between our material aspirations and their inevitable effect on our planet and ultimate future. Key areas of interest relate to the forces of attraction and repulsion and, secondarily, to the speed at which we hurtle resolutely on our chosen trajectory into an uncertain future. I explore the concept of ‘anomie’ – a term referring to the loss of personal or societal norms of behaviour. The word was popularised by French sociologist Emile Durkheim in his influential book Suicide (1897). Durkheim was of the opinion that anomie arises as a result of a mismatch between personal or group standards and wider social standards, or from a lack of a social ethic, which acts to produce moral deregulation and an absence of legitimate aspirations. A leit motif of the effect exerted by the magnetic field runs through my work speaking to the concepts of the loss of our societal moral compass and to the binary opposing forces to which we are subjected: nature on nature; human on nature; human on human, and inevitably, nature on human. |
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Title: de Magnete IV
Date: 2012 Medium: Iron filings on paper Dimensions: 48 x 65cm |
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Title: Field (Working drawing)
Date: 2011 Medium: Burnt tyre soot and oil on paper Dimensions: 58 x 94cm |
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Title: Janus: Gate-top Statuary for the Discerning Home Owner
Date: 2012 Medium: Beaten lead sheet, steel cable Dimensions: 120 x 170 x 90cm |
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Title: Neontological Speciation (Smashed beer bottle)
Date: 2009-2012 Medium: Beaten lead sheet, organic found object, glass museum case Dimensions: 27 x 21 x 12cm |
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Title: Strange Attractors (diptych)
Date: 2012 Medium: Steak knife blades, black Perspex Dimensions: 144 x 94 x 16cm (left panel); 144 x 110 x 16cm (right panel) |
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Title: Strange Attractors (diptych) (detail)
Date: 2012 Medium: Steak knife blades, black Perspex Dimensions: 144 x 94 x 16cm (left panel); 144 x 110 x 16cm (right panel) |
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Title: Force Field (diptych)
Date: 2011 Medium: Steak knife blades, black Perspex Dimensions: 122 x 82 x 14cm (each panel) |
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Title: Force Field (detail)
Date: 2011 Medium: Steak knife blades, black Perspex Dimensions: 122 x 82 x 14cm (each panel) |
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Continental Drift
In a series of four works I use lead tape to recreate the globe as it was 200 |
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Title: Continental Drift (40 Thousand years)
Date: 2011 Medium: Lead tape, black Perspex Dimensions: 148 x 82 x 7cm |