Presenting 3 arms

Since the last seminar I decided that I had lost touch with the hands on side of my practice and wanted to explore that further again. The challenge as a (predominantly digital) photographer is how to keep hold of that hands on and not end up spending hours behind the computer (which I cannot do, as have RSI/OOS, so careful management is required). So my initial starting point has been to use an alternative photographic process, cyanotype, again. Create work with that and then further develop that as a body of work, possibly with digital. Now weeks into this thinking I have created a series of cyanotype images on napkins and am now faced with the challenge to contextualize my idea the best way possible: The use of napkins and cyanotype on that was influenced by the plant imagery created on these.  As they are 'old' plants we used to eat, but now see as weeds and a nuisance. Our eating etiquette had us using napkins many moons ago, but this habit has changed and so has what we eat. We ate a wider range of foods, this too is changing. We are loosing the knowledge of how to grow our foods and what to do with it, I believe this is a concern. So as preparation here are my 3 arms I am thinking about & working with: 1. As prayer flags: flag page 1   presenting these as prayer flags in different settings will provide with different readings, but the underlying context is still the same: impart knowledge through the blowing around of the flags in the wind to those who experience this 'loaded wind'. 2. As food; as food page 1 or as food page 2   The simple context behind these is that we have lost or are loosing the knowledge of what we can easily pick from the 'wild' garden that can provide us with food. We are now more inclined to go to the supermarket and buy our food in a can, giving larger corporations the power to dictate what we eat. This is leading us down a narrow path of being influenced by them what we eat. and then something other than cyanotype; 3. Images of the garden in spring, currently as stills but a possibility that these become something else, a book or digital images rolling over to show spring in ....min. I am making images each day of the spring changing garden, as it starts to open up, green up and entice itself out of the winter season: spring garden page 1 spring garden page2   The plant world is an ever changing one, with a repeating pattern of the same.

Posted by Elle Anderson

comments powered by Disqus