Lorient

This body of work ‘Walking alongside Nature’ has emerged intuitively as I reintegrated into the Cornish landscape, by celebrating it but also by looking back towards the Caribbean and its threatened rainforests. ‘KOOS’ symbolizes a return home after 12 years in the Caribbean. It roots me in the Cornish landscape and celebrates its industrial history of tin, copper, slate and clay, while highlighting the challenge of ‘treading lightly on the earth’ . Transformation is an important aspect of my work, both in an alchemical sense and a literal one – we ‘see’ things more clearly when they are translated into different materials. They help us to revive that wonder and awe in the beauty of nature. Thus ‘KOOS’ ‘connects, inspires and honours nature through transformation: A soaring affirmation of life.

I developed the installation ‘KOOS TAROSVAN’ as a result of the invitation to show at the Interceltic Festival in Lorient – it expands the work to a global dimension and stresses the need for us to live in balance with Nature. It symbolizes our responsibility for the planet, the ‘trees’ act as ‘connectors/ obelisks links between the above and below. Working on this installation has inspired me to try different materials, like resin and to take a more active and eco conscious role in recycling in the work. This is a new departure for my practice and expresses my concerns with environmental issues. Imbalance threatens the diversity of our eco systems and contributes to the increase in CO2 in the atmosphere. Passing by the ghosts of the trees reminds us to listen to the cry of the earth and to protect it – to see our role us the custodians not owners. The viewer experiences this installation as they move around from the negative ‘Que Pasa Pan?’ to the promise of positive balance with ‘Conjunctio 111’ the sacred marriage in Alchemy between king/queen, masculine/feminine, yang/yin, the process being reversed back from positive to negative as the viewer makes a full circuit of the installation.