MORALLY DISTRESSED - THE CONCEPT

Working with themes of hope and impermanence, MORALLY DISTRESSED uses photography and organic decay to explore our inability to act on the environmental crisis and visualise the sense of growing helplessness found in communities all over.

Inspired by the Dutch Golden Age, intimate portraits will be photographed to capture the diversity of Australia and put a face to the cost of the environmental crisis. The painterly backdrops, chiaroscuro lighting and warm tones will add a sense of gilded prestige to the everyday subjects and speak to humanity’s ego and futile need for legacy. These will be broken up with expansive land and seascapes that evoke a crushing sense of powerlessness felt in the shadow of forces beyond our control. In all the images, a sense of blurred movement will be present to imply the speed at which things are moving beyond our control.

Tying it all together, the slow decay of the physical prints through mould and fire damage will allude to the environmental turning point that encroaches closer every day. Some works will be enclosed with mould - waiting for time to take its toll as the mildew edges inwards to cover the faces. Hinting not just to our own eventual demise but also our inability to speak up in the face of overwhelming issues. Other works will be treated with fire - creating a delicate and brittle image that will slowly crack and fall apart over time.

The finished effect of the mould and fire damage evokes a cosmic like starfield that further highlights our smallness in the universe. Both the finished pieces and my futile attempts to control them will speak to humanity's arrogance in trying to control the world around us, and the impermanence of it all as nature slowly reclaims what is rightfully hers.

*The below examples are crude mockups aimed at giving a sense of what the final pieces will evoke.

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