The Things Unseen

Flower Series

Right now the earth is showing signs of unprecedented levels of environmental destruction. The specific threats to the environment vary widely, including pollution, habitat destruction, warming temperatures, ocean acidity and species overexploitation, to name a few.

I believe the role of the artist is not to make pretty things, but to challenge the viewer to question what they think and see. This series seeks to draw attention to the many forms of environmental destruction facing the world today using a visual language of codes and symbols that are often more easily understood than the written word. It is my hope that the stories these images tell will be re-told again and again and hopefully maintain social discourse on the topic.

In this series I have contrasted the beauty found in the environment, represented as the flower, with the ugliness caused by environmental threats. The juxtaposition of opposing ideas is used to reach the viewer in an emotional way, to experience despair with hope, and hopefully elicit a response.

Each flower, shot within the Flower or Cloud domes suffers from a different problem. The petal edges are disintegrating using a variety of digital brushes in a range of shapes pertaining to the threats; cracks and fractures for drought, droplets and splashes for floods, rust and crystallization for chemicals, and so on. Visually, the threats are seen as tiny clues to each flower’s demise; hidden, almost unseen yet looming as a threat within each image. Although each flower shows signs of damage, they also reveal areas that remain untouched and perfect, symbolising a hope for the future.

They are beautiful and ugly, engaging and repulsive at the same time. The destruction of each flower is captured as a single moment in time -- a metaphor for the current state of the global environment.

As the exhibition dates have been extended, the images will not be available for delivery until the second week of October, 2017.

The images cannot be rolled for postage, therefore,  the cost of postage/ delivery will be added according to your delivery address. International buyers should purchase the image here first, then will be contacted with delivery options.