Inspired by the Unseen

Fen Fall I - Handprinted paper & collage, inspired by the fragile peatland eco-system 28 x 35 cm in small minimalist frame

Fen Fall I is part of a body of work inspired by the Fens in Cambridgshire, UK.

When I first explored the Fens, I was struck by the perfectly straight rectangles of the water channels cutting across the land. These channels, engineered to control water, have gradually drained life from the peat eco-system. The geometry of sluice gates and cut peat echoed this same rigid structure, and together they became the starting point for my design explorations.

Man made water channel used to drain the Fens

Sluice gate over one of the channels

The drained land is sinking horizon and the eco-system is failing and I used the rectangle shapes to explore designs that would express a system under strain and beginning to fail.

Rectangular stencil for use in printing process

Completed design for the Fen Fall series

Once I had established a design that captured this tension (above right), I created a stencil of rectangular forms (above left) to use in the monoprinting process, creating prints subtly echoing the landscape and reinforcing the design’s underlying structure.

The ‘tumbling rectangle’ motif was then cut from printed paper and collaged onto the background. Both papers were created using paper monoprinted using a geli plate. The collage was then glued to a board and sealed and varnished.

You can see more work created in my peatland series here.

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