Sofía Alrich Veytia

Critical Reflection

Unit 1 

“In a world that is facing unprecedented peril and unimaginable challenges, the key to its survival is an acknowledgement of the beauty, purpose and patterns discernible in the universe; of interconnectedness of all things; and of need to restore balance. If we can somehow achieve this collective perspective then we may yet, in the words of William Carlos Williams, "See with the eyes of angels” (Ellcock, 2022 , preface)

The search for essential connections in our universe is something that has concerned philosophers, scientists, mystics, and artists, among other thinkers, throughout time. Each culture, time period, and individual has researched these connections through different lenses and interests in mind, the contrasts and similarities between these theories, thoughts, and visual representations creates a rich compilation of documentation both in image and text form from which to uncover the not so hidden truths of the universe. 

Throughout this unit I have reflected through both research and practice on these connections. The key areas of research that I have explored during the past months are: The limits of representation, the sublime/intangible, photography as a starting point for printmaking, and nature as the main element for researching parallelisms in our universe. 

In this section I assemble this research through short texts that reflect on books, artists, and exhibitions that fuel my current practice.

Nature as a point of Unity

​​​​The Gaia Hypothesis developed mainly by British Chemist James E.Lovelock and U.S biologist Lynn Margulis in 1974 claims that the Earth is a complex interactive system in which all living things have a symbiotic relationship with the environment, maintaining balance continually on the planet. In this theory, all living things are not just entities of their own but make up a single organism. (Ellcock, 2022, p.10) 

Theories such as this have existed throughout time, indigenous civilizations around the globe had an intimate relationship with the natural world, as for them it was sacred and alive, animated by a living spirit, they saw life and divinity in all things. Humanity has always tried to understand the cosmic patterns that make up our reality. 

In the book, The Philosopher's Plant: An Intellectual Herbarium, 2014, Marder explains that Plotinus a Neoplatonic philosopher conceived “the Soul of All” as a gigantic tree in which all living creatures and inorganic entities represent branches, twigs, and leaves. When these branches stem out far away from the trunk they start to identify with matter and break away from The One, they start to forget that they are one with all of the tree and submit to decay, they lose touch with Unity.

“If all are One and the One is all, then we must be able to identify and accept the plant in us and ourselves in the plant, the gardener in the garden, and the garden in the hardener. Interiority and exteriority are two dimensions of a unified whole, viewed under the lenses of intelligibility and visibility, respectively…” (Marder, 2014, p. 56)

The symbol of the tree as a source of unity between the divine or the cosmos and the earthly or material realm has been used in many cultures throughout history, such as in Mexica mythology. The Mexica were indigenous people of the Valley of Mexico, which is now known as Mexico City, the place where I was born and where I lived most of my life, for this reason, the cosmovision of this culture has always been present to me. The Mexica people viewed trees as an eco of the cosmos, a symbol that could represent various gods such as the god of rain, the god of death, the goddess of poetry and song, and the goddess of lakes. With the influence of Catholicism during colonial times the pre-hispanic symbol of the tree was transformed into the Arbol de la Vida, or Tree of Life, and is very present in everyday culture in central Mexico today. It is currently a symbol mostly used in ceramic sculptures that celebrate the cycle of life, birth, growth, and death and reflects the union of the spiritual realm with the earthly realm. 

During this first unit trees have served as conceptual inspiration for my art practice and also as a visual reference for printmaking. Trees are nourished by both light (sun rays) and darkness (soil), these two poles are essential for creation and growth. Light and darkness are the elements to which I give the most importance, or focus, in my artwork. Specifically, in the intaglio plates I worked on during this unit, I aimed to generate high-contrast images, in which the light areas “glowed” to try and represent the sublime, but this is not something that can be achieved by experimenting with a couple of plates, but something that will take up a lot of experimentation, trials, and errors to be close to generating that sensation. In practical terms, I realised that the darkness could easily engulf the image, and I had to dig out and uncover the light. The manual process was very much meditative and a bit allegorical, as it relates to being inside Plato’s cave, trying to make out the shadows from the outside. 

The Limits of Representation

“The images I am interested in show us things we can't possibly be seeing: things so far away, so faint, so large or soft or bright that they couldn't possibly be contained in the rectangular frame of a picture, and yet they are… They are abstractions of abstractions, feeble symbols for objects that have no reality of their own.” (Elkins, 2008, p.XV) 

The concepts of the intangible, a connected universe, transcendence, the sublime, are embedded in my current research, but how can one picture that which resists depiction? Usually I approach this question in my art practice through abstract imagery, but during this unit abstraction was not the starting point, it was the result of dissecting, transforming, and modifying photographic images through digital, manual, and mechanical processes, specifically in printmaking through different intaglio processes.

Some artists that are engaged with similar topics and ways of working, which shape and inform my research are: Luci Eldridge, Kate Robertson, and Clare Humphries. 

Luci Eldridge is a London based artist that explores the notion of “invisible visions”, re- constructing images of lands we can’t physically experience. She fuses the virtual and the tangible through the language of printmaking, exploring satellite radar images of planets such as Mars, with traditional printmaking techniques such as etching and screen printing, and 3D software, 3D printing and projection. Her conceptual research interests me greatly as she reflects on how virtual devices fragment our perception of landscape, and on the relationship between technology, Earth, and outer space. Eldridge’s work is a great example of dynamic research activity, as she has immersed herself in the scientific community, working with NASA and the Southampton University's Biomedical Imaging unit, which has given her access to images she incorporates in her artwork. This is a practice that I would like to incorporate into my creative process. In order to successfully talk about the connections of science, spirituality, and nature I need to find spaces that are currently researching these topics and insert myself into them. During unit 2 of this MA I will research which institutions, museums, natural spaces etc, would best suit my practice. 

During this term I realised that most of the artworks created were a bit stiff, or static and therefore can’t convey the concepts I am attempting to interpret visually. Luci Eldridge’s SAR Compositions sparked an idea of where I could attempt to go now during unit 2. These screen prints do not follow the traditional format of keeping a print within a rectangle, although the support they are on is rectangular the images within are not, they are almost sculptural as the geometric shapes create volume and depth. With this in mind I believe that the immediate next step for my creative process is to use organic shaped plates, and to experiment more thoroughly on the imagery I am using digitally before taking it onto a physical media. 

The second artist whose work relates to mine is Kate Robertson an Australian photographer experimenting with analog and digital photographic techniques. Her conceptual research has a lot of similarities with what I am currently investigating, as she explores unseen phenomena relating to connectedness within environmental and community contexts, attributing agency to materials and matter. In the series Alchemy, 2017 she represents the four stages of alchemical transformation through layering and manipulating photographs of things such as mold, smoke, crystals, and a supernova. I believe these artworks are a great example of how the images in nature correlate to each other, as a spectator each image seems as if the objects represented were a part of the same category, but in reality, in our day-to-day we perceive them to be very different, for example, smoke and mold would usually not be consciously linked, but through these photographs, you can see that they are). For my future work, I believe I should approach imagery similarly to how Kate Robertson did in this series, incorporating images from various sources and finding a way of linking them indirectly. 

Here the millimetre project comes to mind. While researching the work of Clare Humphries, an Australian artist working in London, I stumbled upon millimetre 02 which is an exhibition space contained within a single picture frame. This series of group exhibitions were conceived by artists Finlay Taylor and Kate Scrivener, and it exhibits linked ideas about natural phenomena or similar topics from various artists, here invited curators to explore the juxtaposition of various artworks, scale, and intimacy. 

In the edition - Prelude to a Luna Library- different views of the Moon are gathered, and it reflects on its impact on culture, life, and language.  With this in mind I believe I could experiment with a similar method in my creative process, to connect ideas from various conceptual backgrounds such as science, spirituality, and culture I could bring together images pertaining to those topics, both made by me, or gathered from different sources and attempt to create connections through relation by proximity. 

Another way of connecting images is through video installations. In October 2022 while passing Kings Cross Station, I stumbled upon the Francis Crick Institute, there was an exhibition titled Outwitting Cancer at the Crick, and a particular audiovisual installation called Micro Cosmos. This video weaved together microscopic imagery and projected it onto a cave-like wall. As the images fused together and passed by these microscopic elements seemed to transform into images of tree roots, stars, and landscapes. This instantly caught my attention as the installation I was experiencing although it talked about cancer research directly connected to my current art practice, as I was attempting to link images of the micro such as patterns of tree bark to waves, and mountains in the print studio. 

After reflecting upon my artwork, process, methods, and materials in this unit, and analysing the work of other artists and exhibitions, I realise my work must become more immersive,  as I am exploring the “ethereal” I must question if a two-dimensional geometric print is the correct media for this research. I will explore larger formats, and organically shaped supports, experiment with sculptural forms and possibly incorporate video, sound, and lighting into my practice to build a setting that will enhance the artistic experience.