Hands, 2022–

 

The images in these works are formed by the play of light across fine scratches in the metal. Marks that glow when lit from above are cast into shadow when lit from the side. As such, each image also contains its tonal negative—a latent potential yet to be realised, a capacity in the work to be distinctly other.

To turn to the hand is both to return to the earliest subject matter in the history of visual representation and to the profoundly intelligent organ through which our capacity for depiction emerged. My return to the hand developed from a desire to connect to this legacy, groping back to something powerfully human, something that has captivated artists across the ages. It was, however, very consciously to return to a relationship that is indivisible from the development of technology, a relationship that has arguably been fundamentally recast in our own age.

The images glowing from beneath these sealed surfaces speak to the pervasive spread of electroluminescent screens, today’s most common means of viewing images. These works emulate this condition while undermining or inverting it: whereas a screen carries within it a light that seeks to produce an image that is consistent irrespective of external conditions, the appearance of these works alters dramatically with every movement of the viewer and with every shift in illumination. They weave into the fabric of their environment. Rather than hermeticism, they seek to connect beyond themselves.