When I look at this work now I find it hard to believe it all began a few years ago with a walk in the Yorkshire countryside. It was then that I saw this little flower. No idea what it is, it just spoke to me.
A year later, after tweaking and lowering its resolution to about 280 pixels it became this.
It remains one of the simplest and most effective works I’ve done. They joy of the flower is not lost in the process and the true digital nature of photography is plain to see. But as I pondered the print on my wall it became clear that there was nothing “tangible” in the art work, it was all illusion. That was when I decided to draw circles in pencil within each square. Delicate enough to disappear at distance yet clear enough to record my time and attention forever. I was pleased with the result, but wanted to turn my marks into atom like structures, to echo the “pixels” we are all made from. I did not want to draw dots in the middle; I had done that in other works, notably Vienne Night Lights. That was why I began to pierce the print with pins. The end result far exceeded my expectations. The atom allusion there and I had also created tiny sun-dials. From a distance the pins disappeared, but up close all manner of wonderful things happened. As you can see in the video…
