2020 The Wind Wanders Around My Bones

 

Recently my work has focused on the widely-felt experience of ecological grief and anxiety associated with climate change and the loss of fragile ecosystems. My drawings depict a solitary figure immersed in challenging yet wildly beautiful landscapes, and are based on photographs I take of myself physically interacting with these rugged, isolated terrains. This interaction takes place as a solitary performance oscillating between awe, despair, mourning, reverence and solace, witnessed only by a camera lens activated by remote control, and then translated into drawing through a process of meticulous, emotionally-laden mark-making.

 

This series of drawings arose out of a three-month residency on the Isle of Skye in 2019. As I clambered around the wind-swept coastline and molded my body into and around the ancient rock formations, I felt vulnerable, humbled and insignificant in comparison to the vastness of rock, sea and sky.

 

Penny Contemporary exhibition page.