Floating Worlds, 1

Spray paint, collage, acrylic and experimental printmaking techniques on cradled wood panel. 2021.

76 cm x 60 cm x 4 cm

This painting is from a series made in response to my interactions with The Denys Wilkinson Building in Oxford. The home of astrophysics, it was built in the 1960’s and is typical of the New Brutalism of the time. Exploring the building's exterior spaces over a month-long, self-initiated residency, I visited the site at different times of the day. Standing or moving through this structure’s spaces I noted the impact of light and weather conditions on the materiality of the environment. With a camera and mirror I captured details from different angles standing within, below and above the shadows which formed. This painting serves as a visual reminder of my time in this environment; a mental map which registers my walking patterns, colours and materiality sensed, noted or remembered, as well as smaller, hidden or discreet details seen but not always recorded. I am curious as to what our peripheral vision captures, what we sense and how the different elements of a building can combine to offer a  rich and positive sensory experience or one which affects us negatively. Together these combined elements create an expression of the fragility and unreliability of memory.