I recently completed a new piece I have titled ‘convenient acquisition’ about the destruction of forests and green spaces, and in particular this work seeks to highlight the controversial building of the High Speed 2 railway. The HS2 seeks to bridge the North-South divide with improved transport connections between Manchester and London, but experts agree that historically these connections between major cities just serve to concentrate wealth in the Capital. Not to mention the continually increasing costs being footed by the tax payer, which once again has a greater impact on the poorer communities in the North. This pointless build destroys the forests and wild communities that are already so heavily impacted by us.
In this work you can see the forest is densely populated with silver birches and the ground heaves with the roots and the many organisms that together have formed a symbiotic relationship. All life supporting the other from the large silver birch trees, to the tiny mycelium, each would not be able to thrive without the other. This gives some insight on this very complex and interesting reality, a living world with many life forms all supporting each other.
The doors here symbolise the ease of access and ownership humans believe they have to the forests. And how easily they choose to step through those doors and destroy the natural and fine balance for their own gain.
I seek to highlight these struggles visually, my thoughts becoming the pencil marks on the paper, and hopefully trigger similar thoughts in the viewer.