A few pictures from my new exhibition at Exeter University Innovation Centre, ‘Liquid, Light and Time’ – you can read about it here at the University Website – if you can come along that would be great.
Many thanks to Dave for helping with the hanging – and also for spotting a Cheshire cat within one of the paintings! I had not seen this cat before, but there he is … the whole cat, not just the grin … you may see it too if you visit!
‘Liquid, Light and Time’
Here’s some advance notice of my new show at the Innovation Centre, starting a week tomorrow (July 2nd).
The theme of the exhibition is exploring ideas of evolution – biological evolution, and the evolution of pattern and form.
I will be showing sequences of photographs which trace possible evolutionary pathways as expressed in different media – ink/water, ink/glycerol, smoke, and light/glass. The different media reveal connections that illuminate the development of pattern, and time-based sequences join the dots between different stages of the evolutionary journey.
The image featured on the brochure below is a detail from ‘Rhythm and counter-rhythm’. This image, created using the Ahlborn tank at the University, shows patterns of parallel flows of ink running at different speeds. The complete image can be seen below in my June 21st entry ‘Complex flows’, and shows how paths of similar direction may be followed with very different results.
OK ……… on with the preparations – lots to do!!
Yesterday evening had some beautiful sunshine – still going strong at 8pm – and I was able to capture some of it in the following light and glass images.
‘Mobius sculpture 1’
‘Hot rays’
‘Within soft folds the edges lie’
I have been setting up complex flows in the lab, where fast and slow rates of flow are combined. Also, I’ve been experimenting with a new prototype for a sculpture I’m making with the help of the workshop staff at the Uni.
The first two images here show different flows running along side by side. The third image is from the sculpture prototype, and although by no means perfect, has some very interesting flow patterns as ink is pumped outward from a central source.
‘Vortex wave’
‘Rhythm and counter-rhythm’
‘Vortex machinery’
Two images from today – have been working on new equipment with lots of help from the workshop -more to come soon.
‘Slow move towards the sapphire’
‘Vortices nesting’
Sparklewave – a picture I took earlier today at the Uni – Hope you enjoy it.
‘Sparklewave’
I’ve just heard I was made a Nominee at the 7th Black and White Spider Awards with my image ‘A new kind of Plesiosaur’, shown below. This image is one I had already chosen to include in my new exhibition next month, called ‘Liquid, Light and Time’ on the theme of evolution. Made from light and glass, this image shows a plesiosaur swimming through sunlit seas.
The exhibition is to be held at the Innovation Centre, Exeter University Streatham Campus – more details to follow soon!
In my quest for time-rich images, I have been photographing sunlit trees, grass and shrubs moving in the breeze, using a still camera and a long exposure. A whole new world appears, and in amongst the motion blur of the leaves we have precise information about their movement in the wind, provided by the white lines of motion. These lines can sometimes look like a graph which has been superimposed – proof of the added dimension of time. Different levels of movement can be seen … ‘Scrambled light trails’ was taken when it was extra breezy, so the lines are more complex. Sometimes the leaves can take on a solid aspect, and begin to look like pods, as in ‘Solid pods’, below. Adding time alters the apparent dimension of objects … an exciting idea!
‘We can see the wind’
‘Solid pods’
‘Wind at work’
‘Scrambled light trails’
Exeter University held an Open Day yesterday for prospective students, and I went along and showed some of my work to visitors of the Fluids Lab. It was great to chat to everyone, including staff and students already at Exeter, some of whom I hadn’t met before.
I showed the visitors soap film equipment and flow past a cylinder .. here are a couple of pictures I took along the way. ‘Planet creation’, with its inner red glow, is reminiscent of a planet still forming. The second image ‘So near, yet so far’ shows a very slow, creeping flow going around the base of the cylinder, then meeting up, but not merging, but diverging instead.
‘So near, yet so far’
‘Planet creation’
I am currently preparing some images for my forthcoming exhibition at the Innovation Centre, Exeter Uni – and have been extracting stills from movies taken a few weeks back. In these, different colours of ink take up different aspects of the outward flow; sometimes forming complex arrow shapes which point the way forward.
Here is a small selection which I found today.
‘Aquapool mirage’
‘Arrow splits the water’
‘green is always go’
‘Coloured maze and hidden face’
chronoscapes 