See-Through Sister

(when looked at in the right light)

2011 | Layered Copper Mesh | 40 x 40 cm

This is a portrait of my sister to celebrate her 40th year of life and the love we share. More importantly, to appreciate just how well I know this human being.

A lot of the work I do relies heavily on technology and precision engineering.  Having just moved on from a good 20 years of sharing intimate space with a high resolution monitor, I savoured the idea of cutting copper with a good old fashioned knife.  There is something dauntingly beautiful about a super-sharp steel blade scraping through softer metal. Its a kind of mystical Periodic Table experience, particularly when done listening to good music. I find James Blake goes well copper.

Then there is the physics of Moiré. Layered copper mesh with the sun shining through from behind brings with it a magical collage of moire patterns. In physics, a moiré pattern is an interference pattern created when two or more grids are overlaid at an angle, or when they have slightly different mesh sizes.