A lot of my previous work has played on confusing scales, creating vast landscapes out of small areas of rock (miniature, rock map, drawings) or even galaxies out of sand grains. I thought using a macro lens to get some close-up shots of various surfaces would be a good way to generate some more visual material around this idea, but perhaps a little more quickly and easily than with the aforementioned work. In doing this I hope to be able to play around with the images further going forwards, being less precious with them and treating them less as finalised outcomes in and of themselves.
Some images are definitely more identifiable as distinct individual items rather than a miscellaneous material, and I think often these more ‘material’ shots are more intriguing in their ambiguity as they morph into entire landscapes, sparking a longer viewing time as we struggle to attach a label/word/signifier/symbol to what we are presented with.
I also see these images as exploring a lively sense of materiality, paying close, personal attention to materials and objects that we might otherwise glance over – something I feel that relates particularly to Jane Bennett’s Vibrant Matter which I am currently reading.
I have recently also made some (very experimental) paper mache sculptures which almost seem to mimic the close cropping of the camera but in a very physical, cloaking way. These two in combination have made some intriguing pictures, although I’m not sure if the paper mache somewhat detracts from the material in question. Then again, the paper mache in itself is material and Bennett’s vital materiality encourages us to see a vibrancy in all matter, not just those that we might ordinarily deem to be worthy of our attention – something I should extend to the paper mache (particularly seen in the final few photos?).
I also then chose to use Bennett’s phrase of ‘vibrant matter’ to quite a literal extent with the following experiments. They are entirely the opposite of what I usually create which is something that I instinctively dislike, but it’s important I question this, not just subscribing to a formulaic way of making work. I think I am drawn to an artwork’s quietude, a still, poetic quality that draws in the viewer and opens up a space for contemplation, and it is this that usually manifests itself in my work. In these pieces something quite the opposite is happening which, although striking and intriguing, potentially does not sit well with this poeticism I usually enjoy. I do, however, enjoy the resemblance of the first piece to a digitally mapped surface, heightening usually unnoticed, subtle details and expanding them into a whole terrain, as I set out to do with these photos.
As I took these photos I found the process itself (as opposed to the resulting photos) to be realising much of what I was looking to do in terms of abstracting and exploring tiny hidden worlds of detail. In focusing and moving the camera, exploring various compositions, I found this movement to be just as intriguing – if not more so – than the photos themselves. As such I also took some videos of this micro-exploring:
To some extent the photos remind me of the Boyle Family’s work with their randomly cropped, flat, materialistic compositions:
Holland Park Avenue Study 
Cobbles Study with Yellow Line, Concrete and Paint Traces 
Addison Crescent Study
The videos also remind me of Rob Smith’s Home-Mars-Elsewhere which tracks the movements of Mars through his front room – again a random series of shots of randomly composed close-ups which encourage the viewer to consider ‘everyday’, or often overlooked, items in a new light:
‘This stop-frame animation was made using an astronomical telescope mount as it tracked the movements of Mars for twenty four hours from my front room in Whitley Bay. It is accompanied by an image from the Martian surface captured by NASA’s Curiosity rover earlier this week.
Neither of the landscapes described by these images was known before they were captured. Through this work each becomes known through its interrelation to the other, only to be recomposed as they are distributed across multiple other locations and a network of technologies.‘
Anna Harris 