What happens when metallic wax drips into a wooden box?

This project explores the power of the abstract through the shapes created by metallic wax dripping from a sculpture of graphene-based radiators. The artist Ben Jack Nash turns the sculpture on and off in accordance with live data on events and processes taking place in real time. The data, projected on a screen, interacts with the suspended sculpture, determining the timing of the drips which in turn affects the size, shape and texture of the abstract forms it creates as it hits the wooden surface.

Building on from the installation artist’s idea that the ‘abstract is not a purely aesthetic representation’ but ‘its own identity’, the photographic artwork of wax as an evolving matter reveals how this identity is shaped by external and internal factors. The luminous glow from the screen projection, the metallic shine of the wax itself, muffled daylight, the wooden surface it amasses on and the aggregate state of the wax moving from liquid to solid give it a unique artistic identity.

The installation, created by Ben Jack Nash in association with Atta02 and the graphene production company Blackleaf, was exhibited at Shadok’s ‘Biennale de la Créativité’ in September 2023 in Strasbourg, where this photography project, in collaboration with Ben Jack Nash, was initiated.

On two occasions, 25 years apart, Ontario and Quebec were hit by powerful ice storms, causing devastation to many cities, toppling power lines and blocking roadways. People died from falling limbs and freezing temperatures. I happened to live and work in these two provinces both years, 1998 and 2023, but was only able to bring my camera out the second time around – the first one I was too busy finding a place to stay. With this project, I want to show some of the beauty that is in the ice - beyond the destruction. Not in any classic way but by merging the intricate forms of frozen nature with Montreal’s famous murals. I am currently working on a series of colourful yet icy images that reveal a very different type of beauty in the city.

Georgian Bay, the summer of 2009. A trip I took to explore the beauty of Ontario outside the urban hubs. I discovered striking beauty and fascinating extremes. Abandoned houses, farms and trucks alongside SUVs packed to the brim with canoes and sunscreen. Brightly painted cottages for rent. Beautiful people. It’s an area that many photographers and artists are drawn to, and Tom Thomson’s beautiful ‘Pine Island’ (1914-1916) rendered the region famous. Beautiful landscape photography books exist, and I could never do better. But what I can do is tell the story of summer life around Georgian Bay nearly 15 years ago and put its ease and fun in contrast with the lives and livelihoods abandoned. While we may never know the reasons, we can tell the tale of human existence and its all too fleeting presence.

Work in progress.