I live and work on the south coast at Lee – on – Solent near Portsmouth. I studied photography at West Sussex College of Art & Design, where my initial intention to become a graphic designer was quickly overtaken by a growing interest in photo – based imagery and a strong interest in painting and printmaking, reflected in the work of abstract painters Roberto Matta and Max Ernst, who had signified the interest and possibilities of the uninhibited imagination. In the darkroom I experimented with a range of photographic techniques, including making unique and unpredictable abstract photograms which made a lasting impression on the development of my own imagery.
In this respect, my concerns for so called ‘direct’ photography have always competed with a notion of making images signifying aspects of the unseen, the irrational and even unconscious. To this end, the works I am exhibiting are not photographic in the literal sense, or a collage made from other recognisable images but are elaborate, non-figurative digital compositions, which draw inspiration from characteristics of organic growth and structure, such as plants and architectural elements.
In developing an idea I often incorporate drawings and additional content where partially and wholly abstract forms are built up using an extensive range of digital techniques. The result, hopefully, is an image displaying an exacting graphic quality, derived from a close interaction of colour, tone and line and an accent on space and light.
Vortex suggests a representation of an organic void, embodying ideas of both expansive external and internal microscopic, biological space. It reflects ideas of visceral associations with physiology, blood, and neurological connections within the mutability of a biomorphic mechanism such as the body.
Mappa Mundi Is an ambiguous, dynamic, semi-geometric composition which in reference to medieval topographical diagrams and mutable spatial maps, alludes to an astral view of a metamorphic moment during the formation or scattering of a celestial body.
All images © 2011 Andrew Ball. All rights reserved.