web: www.henriettasimson.com

Artist's statement

My practice explores the notion of the landscape image, its manifestation in and interaction with the physical space of the exhibition environment. The work is concerned with the relationship between art history and contemporary practice; how the former informs present cultural assumptions. It engages with technologies of vision derived from linear perspective, and the impact these have had on our relationship with the landscape. By adopting an interpretive approach to these media of image production, I explore the seductive nature of two-dimensional representations of three-dimensional space, what the co-option of visual experience implies culturally and ideologically, and how the materiality of the forms produced impacts on the illusory effects they create. The work is experimental, and focuses on the material presence that accompanies (and is a striking feature of) 14th and 15th century forays into spatial illusion, exploring an affective reality, and asking how this contributes to contemporary representational image-making; how it mitigates against the extreme effects of perspective and perspectival technologies.