This body of work begins with the anthotype, a 19th-century image-making process that uses natural pigments extracted from flowers to create a light-sensitive emulsion. I brush this emulsion onto paper and expose it to sunlight over the course of several days or weeks. The resulting sun prints are then scanned and digitally altered before being produced as final giclée prints.
My aim is to preserve the fragility and essence of the original prints while rendering them in a way that also references painting and printmaking. The ephemeral, delicate, image that emerge are innately tied to the passage of time.
I'm especially interested in how this kind of distillation of matter becomes a metaphor for how we process experience into memory. The transformation of petals into emulsion, of sunlight into imprint, and of print into digital artifact speaks to the layered nature of recollection: mutable, partial, and always shaped by the materials through which it is held.
The process carries a deliberate reciprocity: making images of plants with the plants themselves suggests a kind of mutual witnessing and shared presence. Icon paintings also informed my thinking, particularly in their intention to inspire reflection and a meditative engagement. In this work, I hope to prompt viewers to consider humans as part of, rather than separate from or dominant over, the natural world.
Giclée prints from original anthotypes
Hahnemühle Bamboo Fibre
Editions of 10 + 2 AP
16 x 20”
Inquiries: shelley@shelleykirkwood.com UK: Select images available via Cicek Gallery: hello@cicekgallery.com