| Project Title | Another Day’s Light |
| Location | Riverside Museum, Reading, UK |
| Date | 16th-23rd July 2025 |
Artist Statement
My subject matter, materials and processes are all closely linked to light, time, and the environment. There is an essential relationship between the themes addressed by my work and the act of their being made.
I’m interested in photography in its most basic and immediate form – the action of light upon a surface over a specific duration of time – and how the long exposures of lens-less photography (photograms, pinhole images) reveal the essence of a situation or event not-quite-tangible to an observer in ‘real’ time or from a human perspective.
Weaving is a process by which timelines are constructed. The materials I use are shaped by their photographic exposure to sunlight: they are time- and site-specific records of significant (or insignificant) moments and events. When woven together a narrative develops – superficially linear and geometric but often with subtle elements of disorder and glitch.
The variable strength of sunlight, along with the effects of weather and interactions with other non-human elements, make the processes I use experimental and outcomes unpredictable.
Contextual Statement
Research Question: How can the temporalities of weaving and cameraless photography be combined in order to investigate time as a non-linear, polychronic, chaotic, unfixed and subjective lived experience?
‘Another Day’s Light’ is woven from linen and hemp dyed with local plants and cyanotype chemistry. Cyanotype is a low-toxicity iron-based photographic process: the blue colour is produced upon exposure to UV light (sunlight). I have used this process not to create an image, but rather to record the action of sunlight itself; to ritually capture photons which are then woven directly into my work. I used exposure times varying from 8 minutes 20 seconds (the time taken for sunlight to reach the earth) to one week. The dyes, and also the yarns, were made from plants which absorbed sunlight during their lifetimes, thereby adding to the complexity of data attached to the work. Weaving is an ordered process, but in this piece various dates of photographic exposure, plant growth and gathering, dyeing, unravelling and re-weaving reference many layers of time which are juxtaposed and overlapping; it may be viewed in the order in which it was woven but any logical sequence of events is impossible to discern. The unconventional combination of weaving and photography foregrounds the temporalities inherent within each process and so encourages contemplation around the subject of time.
‘Another Day’s Light’ was exhibited as part of an artist residency at the Riverside Museum in Reading, UK. The 15 metre long sculptural textile gently undulated along the full length of the narrow interior of the museum. The river and nearby weir could be heard clearly from inside and viewed from the windows. As the sun moved around the space throughout the day, reflections flickered and the light changed every few minutes. There were obvious parallels between the artwork and the river: flow and flux, time and change, but also permanence – the solid historical building and the river’s constant presence. A short film was made to document the piece and, importantly, to illustrate the essential relationship between the artwork and this unique site.
The residency included the creation of a complementary piece of communal artwork woven by visitors, which was unveiled and displayed, along with their comments and observations, on the last day of the exhibition.
