Fern photograms on a disused chair, installation in Portland, Jamaica in 2021.
Empty Chair, fern photograms cyanotype on newspaper, Jamaica (2021)
Empty Chair was a cyanotype installaton made during my project Fieldnotes Jamaica which explores issues relating to the environment in Jamaica, traced from colonial times to the present day.
The empty chair installation was photographed on a stretch of the main coastal road just outside Long Bay, Portland in Jamaica. It connects to the destruction of natural habit that occured during the construction of the new road which started in 2021.
Photograph: Construction Zone, Fairy Hill, Portland, Jamaica
I made a series of photograms of ferns on Jamaican newspapers exposing them in the sun. Once dried I tore off shreds and pasted this on to an abandoned metal chair that I found on the roadside. The chair was completely covered in the cyanotype newsprint.
Photo Gallery: various images of making the chair
I used the empty chair in this work to imply the human occupation of space. The chair is a stand-in for people, the cars, a character to occupy an otherwise empty space.
The chair here symbolizes the loss of the natural habitat. The chair is photographed in a remote unexpected place but provides evidence of nearby human occupation of space on the roads linked to the impact this can have on the natural habitat and environment.
Photograph: Road Closed, Fairy Hill, Jamaica
The construction of the new costal road in Jamaica from St Thomas to Port Antonio, Portland sparked an outcry at the savage way the construction companies cut back extensive sections of the natural habitat inculding trees along the long stretch of road.
Photograph: Local Resident next to a tree destroyed outside his garden, Fairy Hill
The Empty chair was placed in the road one afternoon as shown in the photographs below as part of a tempoary installation on a remote stretch of the main coastal road just outside Long Bay, Portland in Jamaica, in 2021.
Empty Chair (2021) Portland, Jamaica
I used jacquard cyanotype sensitizer set to make my photograms with ferns placed on top of the newspaper placed under a large piece of glass. I found it worked best making them whilst the paper was wet due to the newsprint. I exposed the cyanotypes for around ten minutes using the sun giving me a rich intense Prussian blue.
The project received support from Arts Council England.