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Printed on Hanhmühle cotton rag. 90cm x 60cm. Edition of 5.
Sulfation was taken in my first week in Iceland. It was a month of firsts. First artist residency abroad, first time travelling on my own, first time solo hiking, the first instance of taking time off other employment to focus solely on my practice.
Sulfation references the chemical reaction that allows the salts of surfuric acid to form. The photo was taken at Seltún, a geothermal area on the Reykjannesdkagi Peninsula in south west Iceland. It is an astounding area of colourful bubbling mud pools. The sulphur content here is high and strong smell hits you immediately. The colours range from browns, to orange, greens, silver and blue.
The title ‘Sulfation’ has deleterious connotations which I think is very appropriate to the geological and social history of the area. The area operated as a sulphur mine from the 13th until 19th century. In the late 20th century, there have been explosions and large vents opening, destroying the human infrastructure built to facilitate experimental drilling.
October 2021 created a seismic shift in my life and my art practice. I am not sure if it was the landscape, or the time I had to think, but it changed something in me. Even still now as I realise how terrifying, insecure and turbulent life is as a full time practitioner… A chemical reaction maybe… some metaphorical vent perhaps…. Deleterious not in the harmful sense but a slow-revealing.