Transience

Images in this exhibition have a meditative quality and exude an element of intrigue. I have photographed a vortex in water and although I have used a digital camera and standard editing techniques, I have not generated these images digitally. My focus with these images is to use shape, form, and colour to explore transformation, impermanence, and transience.

After a short time observing and photographing, I realised that it is the air which creates and sustains the form of the vortex, and the analogy between the vortex and the human form became apparent. It is through this funneling of air that the shape of the vortex changes and transforms. The shapes are dynamic, sensual and voluptuous, yet have an element of serenity. They range from having an ephemeral quality to imbuing strength and appearing more like glass than water. I draw on the work of artist Dale Chihuly, whose glass sculptures capture in time the fluidity and movement of form in its transformation from sand to its artistic creation. Interestingly, it is air which is ‘breathed’ into molten glass, as too with the vortex and our bodies.

The broad range of images shown in this exhibition suggests impermanence and transience. I was fascinated and excited by the fact that at fast shutter speeds, I was capturing only one image out of the possible thousands each second. So many images passed without being noticed. By pausing the moment, glimpses of the incognisant were made visible.

Each photograph, a representation of a stage of the vortex, evokes a response which I have explored in relation to the human condition and the transient nature of life, with regard to that which is observed and that which is unseen. These images of paused moments suggest that there is far more than what is observed. It is this that triggers the reflective nature of my work.

So much is unseen,
obscured by movement, yet created by it.
These are moments paused — glimpses of Transience.