MARJORY’S WORLD (2012-2024)

..it occurs to me that at one time, the only acceptable expression of profound grief for ladies of the upper classes was to wear heavy robes of black silk taffeta or black crepe de chine and Sir Thomas Browne who was the son of a silk merchant, and may well have had an eye for these things, remarks in a passage of the Pseudoxica Epidemica, that in the Holland of his time, it was customary in a home where there had been a death - to drape black mourning ribbons over all the mirrors, and all canvases depicting landscapes or people, or the fruits of the field, so that the soul, as it left the body would not be distracted on its final journey. Either by a reflection of itself or a last glimpse of the land - now being lost for ever.

W.G.Sebald, The Rings of Saturn

I began the Marjory’s World series during my Artist In Residence in the Everglades National Park in 2012 and have continued on to make work in a diverse range of landscapes across the United States.

The concept of the series draws inspiration from the above quote - a ritual described by Sir Thomas Browne in the Pseudoxica Epidemica and detailed in the book The Rings of Saturn by W. G. Sebald. It was believed this would make it easier for the soul to leave the body and subdue any temptations for it to stay in this world. The ritual seemed, by extension, to be a confirmation of the deeply moving experience that one often feels in the natural environment and provided both a literal and contextual frame within which to shoot the landscape, a portal from the domestic into the wilderness.

Purchasing curtains from Goodwill and Salvation Army stores in the areas where I am photographing, they represent a ‘social fabric’ with a history attached to them and are a cultural connection with the area itself. In our increasingly urban existence which ever distances us from the wilderness experience, the drapes serve as connectors to the familiar and function as visual portals.