Glinting Canopy 2018

About the artwork

Inspired by the correspondence between JD Hooker, plant explorer and director of Kew Gardens and his close friend Charles Darwin. The tropical glasshouses at Kew, which houses many exotic plants collected by intrepid plant explorers, is the location of this digital photograph based artwork with a twist.

The image was manipulated on the computer, transferred onto a large film negative which was then made into this physical form using one of the oldest photographic techniques, the Cyanotype which was invented in 1842 by John Herschel.

Cyanotype is made by painting a chemical onto paper in the dark. When exposed to the sun and then washed in water, the exposed part turns a beautiful blue. New and old tools are used to make this artwork. Every artwork is different due to being made by hand using the sun which varies minute by minute, day by day, month by month.

Each print has the edition number in the left corner hand written and signed on the front right by the artist.