works in progress
energy fields
my current project, Energy Fields, responds to Chile’s Atacama Desert, where lithium, copper, solar irradiance and extractive economies converge in one of the driest and most solar-intense landscapes on Earth. Developed during a seven-week residency, the work uses frottage, cyanotype chemistry and field observation to register the desert’s surfaces, atmosphere and energies. By making sunlight an active material in the drawings, Energy Fields reflects on place, extraction and renewable energy, revealing the visible and invisible forces that shape human experience.
Research in the Atacama has brought these concerns into sharper focus, connecting renewable-energy technologies to particular landscapes, materials and environmental pressures. This is an urgent moment as the transition to renewable energy is accelerating, yet its material and ecological consequences remain largely unseen. Lithium, copper, solar irradiance and extraction are not abstract subjects; they are inseparable from places, communities and fragile ecosystems.
ThroughEnergy Fields, I seek to create work that makes visible the interdependence of ecological systems, material extraction and human experience. The project offers audiences a reflective space in which to consider the hidden forces that shape contemporary life, and to engage more critically with the environmental responsibilities embedded in the transition to renewable energy.
The methods I use embody the project’s concerns: frottage registers direct contact with surface and place, while cyanotype fixes sunlight within the work, making energy, materiality and environmental force integral to both its process and meaning.
The project is gaining public momentum. This research has led to an invitation to deliver a talk and cyanotype workshop at Energy Transitions: Northeast Scotland and Alberta Visualised through a Humanistic-Artistic Lens, a two-day transdisciplinary event at the University of Aberdeen in 2027 (date tbc).