Looking At What Can’t Be Seen, Robert Morat Galerie

Simon Roberts LOOKING AT WHAT CAN’T BE SEEN

Exhibition from June 8 to July 31 2024

Opening Reception on Friday, June 7, 6 – 9pm

The exhibition combines works from two series by British artist and photographer Simon Roberts: “The Celestials” and “Cloud Negatives”.

During the global pandemic and ensuing lockdowns, satellite images released by NASA and the European Space Agency showed a dramatic drop in nitrogen dioxide emissions; the skies were clearer, bluer, the earth was breathing again. The cyanotypes in the series The Celestials were created during that time, using negatives of photographs Roberts had taken from plane windows on historic work expeditions over the preceding years. The Prussian blue of the cyanotypes, a colour that is not found in nature, is brought about by a chemical reaction that produces ferric ferrocyanide. They evoke an otherworldly, dreamlike intensity that is augmented in several cases by layering multiple negatives – creating „fictional“ images and allowing us to „look at what can’t be seen“.

The same is true for the large-format black&white prints in the series Cloud Negatives, which were made using the same photographic negatives. Both series work with a degree of abstraction that touch on the essence of what many people experience in our time of the climate emergency: our altered states and perspectives, collective uncertainty and deepening awareness of the interconnectedness between humans and the natural world.

Download a press release here.