Letters to the Void

Abstract

Perceptions of landscape are determined by our geographic place in the world, formed through historical, social and cultural contexts. Our experience of landscape is predominantly led by vision, learned instincts, for many often seeking the desirable view. The restrictions of 2020 created a need to re-evaluate our terms of engagement with the world, the physical spaces we could explore became smaller. With normal boundaries and time suspended, new interactions enabled the potential to explore as never before.

Porosity is a term borrowed from geology, referring to the measure of holes in stone and used to consider how water penetrates rock. Developed during 2020 and lockdown it is a conversation about relationships, conversations to speak directly to the imperceptible energies, which underscore human experience but, which often exceed our ability to capture or represent them. It is a conversation with subterranean landscapes, making contact with what lies hidden, the invisible shaping the visible. Implicitly the term Porosity connects the permeability of the landscapes with the porousness of the human body. This points to a give-and-take relationship between person and place, an inevitable interchange of molecules and energies, each leaving an impression on the other.