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WE'RE ALL JUST BLOWING IN THE WIND - THE JOURNEY

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My series ‘We’re All Just Blowing In The Wind’ started in the early days of the 2020 pandemic. In the first lockdown, like everyone I was struggling to come to terms with the rapidly changing world. 

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For my final degree show submission for my MA at Wimbledon College of Art I had planned to make a set of pyjamas to continue my work on sleep. But when I revisited the pattern pieces I had cut from midnight blue satin to execute the project when Covid hit in my makeshift studio in a garage in North Lincolnshire they seemed too perfect, too clean. They did not reflect anything of the situation at the time. The world was in tatters, with countries world wide falling into economic crises due to the escalating virus crisis. At that time as a society we were tired, we were scared, and we were anxious. We did not know what the future would hold, and indeed we still don’t know this. 

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Inspired by the aesthetics of the post apocalyptic film 'Snowpiercer' by director Bong Joon-ho, the photography of Don McCullin and the Bob Dylan song 'Blowing in the Wind. I started experimenting with what I could find in the garage. I initially used white emulsion paint, and a power sander  to break down the fabric, changing each piece into another entity entirely. The evolution of the fabric from soft satin to a harder denim material echoed life moving from the usual to something that felt a lot harder...

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I hung these pieces on the washing line originally out of necessity of space, but watching, photographing and filming them in this situation they became a representation of life in tatters. As a society we were all just blowing in the wind, there were no answers, and we did not know what the future would hold. And I became transfixed by the movement of the wind, which very much demonstrated in that time how powerless we as humans are - nature will always prevail. 

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This work and experimentation then led to a successful submission for an installation in the London Grads Now group show at The Saatchi Gallery in September 2020, where photographs were printed onto large sheets of tracing paper and hung on a washing line across the gallery.  This allowed the images to move slowly as visitors passed through the space. This is what is presented for the UAL Graduate Showcase in July 2022. 

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I have since continued this work, repurposing the transparencies layering them against natural light, creating a range of static yet dynamic photographs. Each photograph is different yet the same. Like life, and indeed our individual experiences throughout the pandemic, and into this new world. The images aim to demonstrate the beauty and resilience of nature, and indeed the human spirit in these changing times.