Consider the possibility of a “true” nature, if such a pristine thing can exist anymore, and try to reconcile it with the prevailing and unavoidable existence of junk. Pieces of detritus are collected, rendered, and arranged into respective void spaces, forming cluttered nebulas.
These are real, found objects. This work welcomes the use of decay and waste to educate a creative practice, reframing symbols of urban decline and mess as markers of untapped cultural and aesthetic value. I suspect that there are systems, patterns, and relationships, both human and non-human, that emerge from a city’s waste streams, and these can be understood and enjoyed through a specific type of creative attention. In the final frame of this etching triptych, “Imagined,” conjured artefacts emerge, as though they were the waste pieces extrapolated by imagination, fantastical in nature.

Etchings on zinc with aquatint. Plate size 42 x 50 cm.