In 2020 Australia was burning. Native forests were destroyed. I started this project before these deadly fires, concerned about our natural bush being decimated and continuing my interest in redundancy and waste. Deforestation was already a huge public issue.
I took an analogue camera into Australia’s national parks to document the forests, capturing patterns of branches, bark and leaves, light and shade.
I them sliced the pieces of positive film into different shapes and sizes, like wood-chips, then rearranged them into bold abstract compositions. The billions of trees cut down annually are represented by these photo-chips, a symbol of what we are doing to our natural environment. Cropping, an act of vandalism. Bold cuts, trauma. Sliced so that regeneration is impossible.
By bringing these cut fragments into an art gallery, I hope to highlight the gap between the myth of the Australian bush and the real cost of our modern lifestyles.
Reconstructed Landscapes inkjet print 50 x 42cm Edition 1/3 +AP
