The Benign Indifference of Nature
THE BENIGN INDIFFERENCE OF NATURE
2021/2022
“I laid myself open to the benign indifference of the universe.” – Albert Camus.
Nature’s cycles and systems conduct their magnificent self-organisation according to their own rhythms and methods, not ours. They will continue their existence whether they share this planet with us, or not. And indeed, their continued success would be greatly improved if we humans hadn’t made such a mess of our custodianship of the planet.
BENIGN INDIFFERENCE 1
70 x 50 cms
October 2021
Walking through a field at harvest time I saw small shards of wheat had formed golden circles caught in the myriad cobwebs around the fallow periphery.
This relief photogravure has a gold circle incorporated into the plate and is printed onto smooth, cotton rag, Zirkall paper.
BENIGN INDIFFERENCE II
70 x 50 cms
October 2022
SELECTED FOR ‘THINKING FOR PRINTING’ EXHIBITION AT BANKSIDE GALLERY, SOUTHBANK, LONDON – FEBRUARY 2023
Initially a photograph of a Dutch Reed Bed at the liminal space between land and water, this image gave the lie to the mantra that “nature abhors a straight line”.
Whilst sunlit bubbles sparkled alongside these natural shapes, a large setting sun hovered above. Now digitally manipulated, the image has been altered to create a symmetrical design with manually added bubbles and scratch marks by the artist, before being exposed onto a UV sensitive plate. The plate was inked and printed over a gold monoprint sphere onto Somerset cotton rag paper.
BENIGN INDIFFERENCE III
July 2023
(Part of the Hybrid Collection)
70 x 50 cms
Eco Print with Intaglio Photogravure overprint and golden Monoprint
(from the Hybrid Collection)
This image celebrates and relates to the beauty and fragility of the world.
Eco Printing is a method of direct physical contact with nature, and collaborates with plants to create echoes of the original in surprising ways.
In this print the Eco Print base is always different – no two are the same; whilst the etching plate that has been used to print over it (the same plate as
Benign Indifference I) re-produces the same image each time consistently (the only variant being the colour ink used).
The plate was Intaglio inked and printed with a gold monoprint sphere onto Somerset cotton rag paper.
The Hybrid series expresses the dichotomy between unmediated nature,
variable and immutable, and virally spread Memes that populate the media.
BENIGN INDIFFERENCE II & III were selected to form part of The Society of Designer Craftsmen’s exhibition ‘WONDER’
at the OXMARKET GALLERY in Chichester, SEPTEMBER 2023
