Sarah Duncan

Scientific studies are currently focusing less on the possibility and more on the certainty and speed with which climate change is taking place. My practice is not obviously engaged with worldly issues, working directly to transform the global scale of climate change into a human narrative. But more to have it subtly resonate within my work. Subject matters are introduced as key elements that make up the natural world – water, stars, ice and snow. But underlying are the activities that affect the planet’s fragile equilibrium. Which is what I want to capture within my prints. I am interested in how the element of water can absorb and reflect light in a variety of forms. The starting point for my work in Finland was wondering how I could capture the “dark” within so much whiteness. By using small amounts of dark, I want it to be apparent that I am focusing on the positive rather than the negative.

While working on small sections at a time I don’t perceive what I am drawing as water, the cosmos or a tree. Instead the image is stripped down to its most basic form of colour and shape. It is only when the piece is complete can I finally experience the print as a whole. I continue to explore moments of transition and turbulence in the landscape. I choose to show the beauty rather than the devastation, a celebration of what we stand to lose.