DERELICT/LAGAN / 2019 / ACRYLIC ON LINEN / 2M X 90CM

REACHING FOR THE BEAUFORT SEA / 2019 / ACRYLIC ON LINEN / 2M X 90CM

DERELICT/LAGAN / DETAIL

REACHING FOR THE BEAUFORT SEA / DETAIL

REACHING FOR THE BEAUFORT SEA / DETAIL


AWAYONDER

DERELICT/LAGAN / 2019 / ACRYLIC ON LINEN / 2M X 90CM

REACHING FOR THE BEAUFORT SEA / 2019 / ACRYLIC ON LINEN / 2M X 90CM

EXPEDITION / 2019 / MIXED MEDIA ON LINEN / 40CM X 40CM

This series was based on the exploration and discovery of the Northwest Passage and the idea of longing after loss and the sadness of nostalgia. Inspired by Annabel Lee by Edgar Allen Poe, and two songs. Another New World by the Punch Brothers and Northwest Passage by Stan Rogers.

The Northwest Passage, a search that lasted from from the 15th century to its discovery in 1906, with every exploration (in the face of many casualties) it was the perseverance, the undying and unwavering drive and resolution to discover the unknown. 

I was attracted to the story of the Franklin expedition and the ships involved, the HMS Terror and the HMS Erebus. The most poignant part of that story being that the wife of Sir John Franklin, Lady Jane Franklin, had pushed him into accepting the task of the mission that caused his demise. After hearing not a word from the crew, she spends the next few years sending rescue ships and raising the funds to do so. She never gives up, finally resorting to mysticism in her quest to find her husband. It was the intense emotional shipwreck of the loss of something long gone and the unending attempt to regain that which was lost, that resonated with my themes.

 

EXPEDITION / 2019 / MIXED MEDIA ON LINEN / 40CM X 40CM