Open Arts Collective Exhibition

As a member of the Thames Valley OCA student group I'm taking part in a group exhibition next year. It will be at the Light Box in Woking and will feature photography, some drawing, and possibly a video installation. The Open Arts Collective consists mostly of photographers so that is the medium that will be in abundance. The group decided the theme for the exhibition will be 'time' and the group have been working for over a year on various pieces of work to show. A sub committee was set up to find a location and make logistical decisions about costs and curating. I would have liked to be more involved in the curating and organising side but a couple of factors have made that impractical; one was that at the time my level 3 studies for Body of Work and Contextual Studies was in full swing; the other is that I travel with my partner (a drawing/painting student) quite a distance from Kent to take part in the Thames Valley Group in Berkshire once a month; making myself available for extra meetings over this distance is not practical.

Working on our group's theme I thought about how the surface structure of our planet changes over geological time. I began to conceptualise this idea and began working on double exposed images using my iPhone. I looked for combinations of rural and urban, small details and interior shots, and came up with some combinations that I think work well with my concept. The work had to be submitted with an artist's statement to a curating sub committee consisting of OCA students from the Thames Valley Group. It was accepted and the work along with my statement is posted below:

I'm looking forward to the Feb 2019 exhibition and seeing all the others artist's work hanging in the gallery. I will update with our progress on this blog.

Crustal Deformations 1 – 5

Crustal deformation is caused by tectonic activity that compresses, tensions, and shears the earth's crust. Material on the surface deforms, creating new landforms that change positions, shape, and orientation.

In this series I conceptualise the geological process of crustal deformation by creating double exposures that merge cityscapes and the built environment with the natural one. The new landforms and oblique planes in my images remind us that in geological terms, the solid ground that we stand upon is an illusion relative to time.

Five photographs created using double exposure digital technology.