The St Andrews Summer Solstice Journey, explores the subtle shafts of light and shifting shadows in the bush on the hill adjacent to where I now live in St Andrews. When I first moved to Australia in 2005, Tess and I created a walking track from the head of the new orchard area along the hill-side opposite the house and studio, then down across the valley up the other side to the house and studio. At the top of the hill before the pathway dropped down into the valley was an area of stringy bark trees with straight trunks some of which had fallen to the ground in an intriguing pattern almost like pickup sticks. The more often I walked passed this area the more I was attracted to it, I became attracted to the patterns of light and shadow and thought it would make an perfect location for a Solstice work. In terms of a carbon neutral work, the fact that it was so close and I could walk to the area offered an extra incentive.

 

For the St Andrews Summer Solstice Journey on 24.12.08, a suitable location was selected to set the camera on a tripod, a series of images was taken as the sun began to rise, and then one image every 20 minutes. Within a few weeks of the journey, on the 7 February 2009, a similar area of bush in and adjacent valley was destroyed in horrific bush fires. The chard remains of the bush provided a subject for new series of work titled Entropy.