In A Deep Breath of Sky, I am exploring my relationship with the sky, its scale and complexity and its ability to reconnect us with our planet. The landscape is a story about the relationship between the earth and the sky; spending our time on the boundary between the two it is a relationship of which we are intimately, if subconsciously, aware.
The metaphors we use describe this relationship – to feel good, elated, we are `up’ floating skyward; to be practical, solid, we `have our feet on the ground’. The land and the sky are so thoroughly woven into our psyche it is part of the fabric of our lives and yet we barely see them.
A Deep Breath of Sky began by reviewing landscape images I had made in a series of sketchbooks dating back to the mid-1980s. I went on to create new images with a more conscious awareness of looking at the relationship between the land and the sky and our place within it. I am attempting to share the physical response to the landscape as we stand within it and look towards the sky.
When we look at the sky we bend our necks back and move our body to follow the sky from the horizon in front to the horizon behind. Using Virtual Reality is about immersion. Both visual and physical, a virtual world not only surrounds you but responds to your movement, to your physical response to the environment. I have watched people using VR arch backwards to engage with the environments I create, and then sit with their head raised skywards, with a meditative stillness, to absorb their chosen perspective of the virtual environment. Virtual reality is about an immersion that requires a physical response from the viewer. These are images cannot be seen in a single frame they require you to look to the sky and then back down to the earth to see the whole picture. The viewer must move to explore the environment. In A Deep Breath Of Sky, we are an active part of a relationship in which we must move physically to focus the mind on what surrounds us.
We breathe in the sky and think about the land, the environment in which we exist. The importance of spending time outside, of just being outside, has a positive impact on our physical and mental health. This knowledge is intrinsic and offers journeys of growth and self-exploration. During this time of `Social Distancing’ and lower car pollution levels, we can enjoy the clear blue skies. Embrace the time to stand and stare. The absence of aircraft rips in the air and increased bird song.
To take a drawing of a sky and wrap it around you just feels right.
