Invisibility

As a visual artist, I think a lot about invisibility.

I have made a number of "invisible" works in the past.  A memorable one I made in Leicester, on the third floor of a beautiful empty building, where I pinned lines of thread from the ceiling to the floor in a pattern at 45 degree angles. You could only just see the thin lines shimmering and you had to move around it to see it,  and it was impossible to photograph.  Another one I made was a thirty foot long chalk drawing on the floor which worked with the play of light through the windows, to the point that people didn't realise the drawing was there and walked all over it!  There is something very satisfying about creating a work that big that people don't see it!

Why would a visual artist want to make things you can't see? Recently the microseasons project has been making me think about this again. Working with pollen traps, where you really can't see if there is anything in the trap or not, has made me think about how we can't see what's in the air, even though it will have an affect on us, in what we breathe in. Am I trying to make the invisible visible in this project? Or does "Imagining Woodlands" require the invisible to remain in the imagination only, as intangible but real ideas?

I am working with the University of Leicester to run creative walks in the Aylestone Meadows this summer, as part of their respiratory health and wellbeing campaigns by the College of Life Sciences. Breathing links nicely with both my exploration of pollen and invisibility in the woodlands, so I think engagement with the invisible will become the theme of these walks. I will publish the walk dates on this blog soon, I hope some of you can join me.