For my final major project, I adopted the name ‘What Remains’. I wanted to explore ideas of environmental abandonment and decay, as a result of manmade or natural disasters or through social or economic changes. I explored the idea of hidden threats, be they disease, pollution or ghosts of the dead as a result of disaster or social events. My themes and artworks explored deserted lime works, abandoned through changing economic needs over time; fire-ravaged castles and stately homes; abandoned buildings as a result of radiation leaks, particularly focussing on Chernobyl, where nature mingles with manmade structures; abandoned streets in times of disease, especially focussing on the current Covid 19 situation. I was inspired to portray ghostly apparitions as visual metaphors for the hidden threat, along with images of abandoned places and masked figures and death and decay.

 

I used newspaper lettering in some artworks to give the feeling of reported news. I also used simple graphite drawings for raw immediacy. The majority of my drawings are completed in graphite to represent the graphite on the control rods of the reactor which were a factor in the meltdown of the Chernobyl reactor. My acrylic paintings adopted a style of dry brushing on a dark background, to accentuate the dark and sinister world of radiation poisoning. The black, textured background gives a basis for vibrant hues that portray the sickly insipid and crumbling nature of broken and decaying flesh, peeling paint, burning nuclear infernos and the deadly glow of ionising radiation. I was inspired by the works of Stefan Koidl on the subject of Chernobyl. Overall, I feel the mediums I chose support my themes and in collating my work, I feel I've achieved the overall message of ‘What Remains’.