Structure for a painting (Shepherd's purse, Herbicide)

During my AA2A residency, at Leeds Beckett University,  I realised an idea that had been evolving through my work over several years. The painted surface is distributed across 15 angled slats, a structure designed to both disrupt and engage the experience of viewing. As the viewer moves, the image gradually comes together, offering a sense of visual solidity, or fragments, giving way to gaps and absence. The repeated vertical lines allude to one of the visual challenges encountered by people with nystagmus, also known as dancing eyes.

The source material for the painting was a phone snapshot of a seemingly insignificant plant (Shepherd’s purse) growing at the edge of a pavement. This contested plant had been sprayed with herbicide. The structure references retail park fencing. Urban wild plants often grow in such marginal spaces; here they are writ large on the rails, yet still occupy the in-between.