The Birth Of Gentle Beings

Shot in Dungeness

2019

The Birth of Gentle Beings a collection of 9 Prints shot in Dungeness exploring the Emotion and Physicality of Material in Time

This body of work marked an articulation of my interest in material as presence rather than medium. 

I began from the premise that material is not passive. Each surface carries its own temperament — responsive, active, capable of alteration. Rather than imposing image onto fabric, I worked to create conditions in which silk, pigment, and pressure could assert their own character through texture, form, and dimensionality. 

The works emerged through negotiation: between resistance and yielding, weight and lightness, control and surrender. 

Layering became both method and inquiry. Aggressively worked surfaces were applied to delicate silk, allowing density to inhabit fragility. The tension between force and softness produced a recalibration of perception. What appeared heavy began to lift. What seemed insubstantial gained structure. 

In this series, I was questioning the boundaries we construct between animate and inanimate, between material and environment. By situating the prints within natural settings — exposing them to air, light, and movement — I allowed them to register forces beyond the studio.  

The work did not simply represent nature; it entered into relation with it. Revealing new perspectives on how we perceive material interaction with nature and art as an active participant in dynamic with the laws of nature.  

These pieces trace an exploration of how contradiction can be held without collapse. Harsh and delicate, deliberate and contingent, internal and external — the oppositions remain visible yet suspended. The works do not resolve tension; they stabilise it. 

This series initiated my ongoing inquiry into perceptual thresholds: how material presence can shift our understanding of weight, agency, and coherence. What began as an intuitive engagement with surface and texture has continued to unfold into a deeper investigation of how clarity emerges through sustained attention.