An Archaeology of the Unknown is a series of on-going work charting an expedition from Sub-Arctic regions through to the Arctic and plays on archaeological tropes of excavation, stratigraphy and psychoanalysis. Journeying in the Arctic is cold and dark, yet illuminating, which I have expressed as a sensory, emotional and imaginal response to the landscape through sculptural-painting and palimpsest-like drawings.
Lapland
Nordica is an accumulation of my many visits to the Arctic region. The textured sculptural surfaces have the ability to capture the ephemeral nature of light and in doing so, echo the equally ephemeral nature of snow and ice. The use of horizontal composition echoes the flat geographical landscape in parts of this region, in particular Lapland, and in doing so, lends itself to a panoramic view, allowing the viewer to become part of the experience. The use of mark-making and subtraction in the drawings, creates a palimpsest like quality alluding to the interchangeability between the primal need to make a mark and the archaeological need to seek what lies beyond.