2011-23
My current work takes as its central focus the theme of Surveillance, and the resulting prints are either created as Etchings or Laser Engraved Screenprints.
The specific colours on luggage x-ray machines have influenced my ideas. The intense, yet translucent, contrasting colours, blues and yellows, in the x-ray images are representative of different materials and their densities. The quality of imagery can be extremely detailed, and by creating images with the same colour, but now repurposed, I wish to investigate an alternative means of representing the depth of surveillance that currently exists. This imagery acts as a metaphor for the amount of information that is currently collected on us as individuals, and how, over time it can be used to create an accurate picture of our lives, interactions, interests and movements, and so possibly predict future actions. Since 2015 i have utilised a laser cutter to engrave images through screen-printed layers to reveal previous layers printed in different colours. The excavation of the final image corresponds to the continuous scrutiny, visual or otherwise, of our current society.
The use of bird, dinosaur or insect imagery, in some of the prints, acts as a metaphor for surveillance: being seen from above, or watched, and this is often combined with other elements, such as a plane, for aerial surveillance. Recent etchings have taken on the appearance of drones, the use of which is constantly increasing.
