Essence

2020

Essence is an intuitive exploration of a collective state of tension. 

Smoke suffocated cities hundreds of kilometres away and then circled the earth. And just when we were about to take a breath, grief overlapped with uncertainty. Global anxiety in the form of a virus took hold of the human psyche.

Nature is ferocious in both giving and taking. The impacts of human intervention on the environment and animal agriculture heeded warnings for decades. Perhaps this 'unprecedented time' was an inevitable reverberation of violence.

Lumen printing is one of the earliest forms of photography. Created without a camera, objects are placed directly onto expired photographic paper and then exposed to sunlight. The material qualities of the object intercept the sunlight, manifesting a photograph. 

The process of Lumen printing can be mastered but is ultimately untameable, reflecting humans' desire to control forces beyond us. Using objects collected throughout a time of tacit grief, each photograph is evidence of a catastrophe.