Everyday Awe: A new & ongoing photographic series
Wonder is not passive, we don’t just wait for it to surprise us; instead, we cultivate it – treat it like a practice. In this way, it becomes possible to find wonder in the small moments, the everyday, the quotidian and to let ourselves unknow the known. Denise Markonish, Curator
Everyday Awe is a new series of ephemeral, staged photographic works referencing everyday experiences of awe and how psychologists are beginning to research and position them as key emotional states associated with prosocial behaviours. Making all these works I was thinking about the psychological benefits of cultivating awe experiences.
Everyday Awe is a new series of ephemeral, staged photographic works referencing everyday experiences of awe and how psychologists are beginning to research and position them as key emotional states associated with prosocial behaviours. Making all these works I was thinking about the psychological benefits of cultivating awe experiences.
Psychological research is starting to show that cultivating feelings of awe from experiences, objects and people can have meaningful consequences for our well-being and even increase our altruistic behaviours to others. The floating world of In Wonderment 1 was created for the camera and shot on film from everyday liquids and materials. Measuring 508x336mm, In Wonderment 1 is available for sale in an edition of 15 & 1 A/P as a C-Type on Fuji Matt paper 231gsm. Please drop me a line for pricing details, or to see it larger.
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Shot on film and created in the studio very much here on the ground these Above & Beyond photographs invite us up into the clouds with a floating viewpoint. Made thinking about both the wonder, but also the eco concerns and pandemic concerns of air travel, they are scaled to match plane window slots.
(Right Above & Beyond 2 & 3) |
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Lockdown Domestic In Between Spaces
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These are from a series of photographic and video works made during the first lockdown of the Covid pandemic, this eight-second film 'Bread-bin cleaning' and the still photo, 'Cleaning the veg compartment' are about domestic roles .'Without these in-between' spaces to process and move to the next part of the day the demands on me often felt layered on top of each other sometimes in overwhelming and bewildering ways as domestic duties ran alongside work and home-schooling tasks. One way of coping was to bring the playful process of art making from the studio into cleaning and domestic chores from time-to-time.
In 2021 Cleaning the veg compartment was selected to be part of the exhibition Distanced Domestic, Clapton, curated by Co-curation. |
Cleaning the Veg Compartment - UK Lockdown; A4 Photographic Print
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In Proximities: An analogue photographic series
‘In less than a century we go from the enclosed city profiled against the horizon of a fairly cultivated countryside, to the spectacle of the big city from which our eye can no longer escape’ Antoine Picon, Anxious Landscapes
In Proximities 4,3,2,6
These ‘cityscapes’ play with positive states of ambiguity as visual prompts for the imagination. Based on research showing our psychological preferences for living with diversity of buildings, plant life & less traffic, they were shot on film in the studio using an experimental process making sculptures with everyday office materials.
In Proximities come in two limited edition of 7 larger-scale & 1 A/P &15 smaller-scale & 1 A/P, In Proximities 3 was selected for the Epsy Photographic Award Exhibition, Elysium Gallery, Swansea by Richard Billingham and Ian Davies. and two works are in the collection of the Park Lofts, Albany Street, London. In 2021 the whole series was shown online in a viewing gallery designed by Kato Wong Gallery as part of their inaugural 'Something From Nothing' group exhibition.
In Proximities come in two limited edition of 7 larger-scale & 1 A/P &15 smaller-scale & 1 A/P, In Proximities 3 was selected for the Epsy Photographic Award Exhibition, Elysium Gallery, Swansea by Richard Billingham and Ian Davies. and two works are in the collection of the Park Lofts, Albany Street, London. In 2021 the whole series was shown online in a viewing gallery designed by Kato Wong Gallery as part of their inaugural 'Something From Nothing' group exhibition.
Uncertainties: An analogue photographic series
‘It is essential to surrender to the idea that human incoherence, which is always twinned with coherence, is what keeps us curious, furious, confused and vitally alive’. Deborah Levy, writer and author
Celebrating positive states of not knowing Uncertainties staged photographs use beauty products to hint at the sublime. Shot on medium format film the series is presented on Dibond as digital C types and consists of 20 smaller-scale & 1 A/P (61x51cm) & 5 larger-scale and 1 A/P (A few of the large scale are nearing the end of their editions). Participatory projects from this series at MAC Birmingham and the British Psychological Society Annual Conference can be seen on the participatory page of this website.
‘It is essential to surrender to the idea that human incoherence, which is always twinned with coherence, is what keeps us curious, furious, confused and vitally alive’. Deborah Levy, writer and author
Celebrating positive states of not knowing Uncertainties staged photographs use beauty products to hint at the sublime. Shot on medium format film the series is presented on Dibond as digital C types and consists of 20 smaller-scale & 1 A/P (61x51cm) & 5 larger-scale and 1 A/P (A few of the large scale are nearing the end of their editions). Participatory projects from this series at MAC Birmingham and the British Psychological Society Annual Conference can be seen on the participatory page of this website.
Top row Uncertainties 1,2,19,21,20,13 Bottom row Uncertainties 4,17,16,3,10,5
Brian and Roger Enos Mixing Colours: A short video submission
In the first UK lockdown Roger and Brian Eno called out for short video projects to accompany their new album Mixing Colours. "When launching the website none of us expected so many people would collaborate and submit short films for the public to enjoy. As a result, we intend to keep this gallery up for at least a year to ensure there is plenty of time to explore it". All films can be viewed here at www.mixing-colours.com. My response was to the piece Quicksilver was called Running Tap, Kitchen Sink, and can be seen at https://www.mixing-colours.com/289ce26f4492
Spilt Milk: A Collaborative series of photographs and poems
Taken outside the studio from a moving train the photographs in this series are combined with poems from Social Worker & Poet Elaine Randell. This paring was shortlisted for the inaugural Adrian Henri £10,000 for Poetry in Art prize & exhibition selected by Carol Ann Duffy in 2013.
Taken outside the studio from a moving train the photographs in this series are combined with poems from Social Worker & Poet Elaine Randell. This paring was shortlisted for the inaugural Adrian Henri £10,000 for Poetry in Art prize & exhibition selected by Carol Ann Duffy in 2013.
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In Her Caravan
She has his photograph it a blurred picture of a tiny baby propped up by the Tampax box. She tells me that she has no regrets he had to go what with her health and all that. Signs readily the adoption paper to make him someone else’s to love and restore back into focus Elaine Randell |
In Her Caravan, C-Type Photographic Print. Edition of 15 & 1AP
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Mountains of the Mind: A series of small-scale, mixed-media paintings on board
These are small-scale, textural landscape works on board made from combining paint with everyday materials such as glues that invite consideration near and far and desire to have awe inspiring experiences. Inspired by the Icelandish landscape I'd like to visit. |
Above & Beyond: A mixed-media series on board
These are small-scale landscape type works on board that explore the distant landscape both from an aerial perspective and a horizon line view, Process-led, they are made with plaster and mono-printing ink and involve a careful way of working into the materials and eroding them back over time.
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Intimacy: An analogue photographic series
My first main photographic series was shot on film and exploring the possibilities of macro and mirco in photography looked at trying to combine both aerial and macro viewpoints - cells and rivers. Everyday substances such as food dyes were used as they could be both opaque and transparent. They were combined with natural objects such as twigs to make highly saturated, photographic prints that were shown unframed, mounted on di-bond to heighten the immediacy of viewing them. They were shown at Lewisham Art House and on tour with Gallery-net from 1999-2000 in a joint show with painter Annabel Kapp.