Minimal Works, 2016-2022

I first encountered Minimalism through the works of Donald Judd, Barnett Newman, Josef Albers, Yves Klein and Lewis Baltz whilst I was studying in art college in 2013. In 2014-17, I was at university and focusing on my degree, but I felt adrift, without a clear direction in my work after several failures and false starts. In response to this I decided to set-out in exploration of Minimalism’s philosophy of simplicity and precise use of limited visual information in a bold attempt to channel this through photography. I photographed carparks, lido pools, tennis courts, walls and at one point a crazy golf course. When I started making works in this series, I saw them as images of obstruction; that these places have been removed from their context but still exist in the world serving their intended function. A carpark space, a patch of astroturf, a tennis court markings or corrugated panel lends perspective that traces of life that has passed through its spatial plane. These images can be read as abstract, constructivist compositions in the style of 20th century abstraction, if it were not for the sterile perfection that characterises the works in their static state. These pictures feature no people, no natural enviroment and are devoid of human emotion and this objectivity is what makes them most revealing. This broad body of work offers a glimpse into my own photographic method and technical objectivity; and an aesthetic neutrality that encourages the viewer to implant their own feelings and emotions into the work. I concluded making minimal works in 2022; and there is a lingering feeling of incompletion, a sense of open-endedness and precariousness that conveys the stresses and strains still affecting my practice today.