Rachel Thomson UK, b. 1965

"The photogram opens up perspectives of a hitherto wholly unknown morphosis governed by optical laws peculiar to itself. It is the most completely dematerialised medium."

László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946), Surrealist

 

"I like the Surrealist artists approach and understanding of what photography is or can be; a means to question the real and to explore and express ideas imaginatively rather than as a representation or documentation. 

I use sunlight, basic chemistry and mundane materials to make photograms in the spirit of this playful approach to image making. The technique allows me to capture through light and translucence an absence of form that is not the form itself.

My repetitive use of the Medusae motif, which I have been making now for over twenty years comes from my own feelings of climate anxiety and from the waste plastic I see daily on my way to work. It is my personal apotropaic mantra or prayer to want this invasive species to not exist at all."

Rachel Thomson

 

Rachel Thomson (*1965, UK) is a visual artist based at Thistudios in Tottenham London. Her work is inspired by a fascination with mimesis and affected by a concern for loss of biodiversity and climate change. Through drawing, photography, print and sculpture and using natural and waste materials her art explores the challenge that humans pose to the world and to each other.