Transitions
A material exploration of Irish wetlands
The need to redefine our relationship with nature is one becoming increasingly pressing in the face of human-driven climate change. This project focuses on materiality within environmental illustration, exploring how we use non-human living matter within visual communication.
Materials used in visual arts, whether traditional or digital, are predominantly acquired through industrial and extractionist processes that are themselves an environmental concern. Based on a practice of foraging in the Sliabh Beagh wetlands, County Monaghan, the project aims to connect the non-human origins of medium to an environmental subject. Using traditional ink making techniques and experimenting with form, the project sought to allow the materials a condition of action over their own narrative. How might the illustration process reveal its materiality and thus connect us to the ecology of its origin?
The project took inspiration from gorse fire destruction in Sliabh Beagh wetlands. Using foraged gorse to create charcoal ink, the materials were assembled to allow the interactions between ink and paper to create their own narrative.
