Suchergebnisse

The use of alternative photographic practices to address ecological concerns in Liggins's first REF submission, Barcode Wales, are also present here. Uncertain Terrain: The Garden was a series of thirty-eight large-scale photographic prints that explored alternative ways of engaging with garden space to engender a greater sense of involvement. The spectator–spectacle view and the aesthetics of the picturesque were rejected on the grounds that they perpetuate the concept of a world 'out there', set against but nonetheless ordered by the human subject. Instead, Liggins used lightweight cameras with plastic, low resolution lenses so that the production of maximum detail would be prevented, and the formality of the image would be lost. This was another articulation of Liggins's baroque photographic aesthetic: rather than description, there was openness to whatever kind of image might be produced when the disruption, opacity and disorder introduced by the plastic lenses worked with qualities from the gardens. The property of 'working with' is key here, since it redefines the photograph from being a window on the world to a surface that reveals the intersection of technology and location. The works were exhibited at the Jaipur Arts Centre, Jaipur, 2013, with co-exhibitor Sarah Tierney, and as a solo show at The Gallery, British Council, New Delhi. A feature article in Culture Colony Quarterly, volume 1, highlighted Liggins's interest in the capacity of photography to resist its 'window on the world' status. Preparatory research was exhibited as part of Unreliable Truths, Glynn Vivian Gallery, Swansea, with an accompanying catalogue, and reviewed in Source journal, issue 57, winter 2008. The project's methodology was discussed in Land Matters: Landscape Photography, Culture and Identity, edited by Liz Wells (IB Tauris, 2011). Financial support was provided by the Government of Rajasthan and the British Council, New Delhi.

Barcode Wales: Beyond the Visible was a series of fifty-two large-scale photographic prints produced at the invitation of the Welsh Assembly Government as part of its larger Barcode Wales project. The objective of the project was to DNA barcode all of Wales's native flowering plants, with a view to expanding research into biodiversity conservation and human health. Liggins was invited to join the project by the Welsh Government to produce imagery that would raise awareness and appreciation of the volume and diversity of Wales's native plants. Rather than opt for an overly literal borrowing of DNA imaging technology, Liggins recognized that her ongoing interest in a baroque photographic aesthetic would lend itself to the project on account of its promotion of disruption, opacity and disorder. This was on the understanding that, in contrast to an overtly representational view that offers pin-sharp detail sufficient for identification and information, compositions that used disruption, opacity and disorder would encourage a sense of closeness. This would be not so much in literal, spatial terms but more through making the plants feel part of the viewer's experience. With the overlooked landscapes of waste-ground, grassland and hedgerow as subject matter, the Beyond the Visible photographs explored relationships between camera placement (the camera set in the floral cluster, making viewfinder confirmation impossible), camera settings and composition to produce semi-abstract images that offered a more immersive experience. The exhibition premiered at the Nanshan Botanical Gardens, China, 2012, where a parallel DNA extraction project is currently running. The exhibition, its catalogue, and Liggins's involvement in the project were fully funded by the Welsh Government and the Nanshan Botanical Gardens. The exhibition subsequently appeared at the National Botanic Garden of Wales, later in 2012.