Statement of Practice
I make drawings using graphite pencil on cartridge paper of landscapes that are in a state of flux, caused by a catastrophic emission of radiation from a nuclear device, or a deadly cosmic event such as a super nova.
The drawings are based upon photographs of urban and rural landscape around Tyne and Wearside. The work is a response to my, experience of fear and anxiety felt during the later part of The Cold War. This fear was greatly heightened by events such as the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl nuclear disasters. Recent drawing have incorporated the phrase "transparent radiation," taken from the song of the same name by the Red Crayola Band, which repeats like an pathological mantra, and forms the fabric of the landscape.
Through these drawings I explore the relationship, and effects, of global events on personal, or autobiographical experience. Like artists such as Gerhard Richter and Luc Tuyman photographs are an important basis to my investigation. By drawing from photographs of local landscapes I make an imagined rendering of reality, instigating the sense of fear and dislocation through the application of marks in graphite on paper.