Hands, 2022–

 

The images in these works are formed of light rather than pigment, with the tonal variations resulting from 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 to be distinctly other.

Turning to the hand is to turn both 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; to grope back to something powerfully human, something that has captivated artists across the ages. It was, however, very consciously to return to a relationship that has been fundamentally recast in our own age.

The images glowing from beneath the transparent layers of polymer speak to the pervasive spread of the electroluminescent screens, which have rapidly become today’s most common means of viewing images.While the works speak to this condition, they undermine or invert 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 dramatically alters with every movement of the viewer and with every shift in illumination. Formed of light, they are touched by and touch the intangible.