Elemental: The Prologue

2016 | Multidisciplinary Installation & Participatory Exhibition

Listastofan Artist Studios Residency, Reykjavik, Iceland


Elemental: The Prologue developed during a residency at Listastofan Artist Studios in Reykjavik, Iceland. The project brought together photography, moving image, sound, sculptural elements, natural materials and participatory structures within a multidisciplinary installation.


The work marked a declaration point within the wider Landscape as Mirror, Self as Myth trajectory: the moment at which a series of intuitive, symbolic experiments began to be understood as chapters within a longer psychological and visual journey.


A red-haired woman in a black dress lies curled on her side among tall, dry grass beneath an overcast sky.
A woman in a flowing white dress walks across a black boulder shoreline between sea stacks as waves break behind her.


The installation invited visitors into a fictional environment shaped through image, object, sound and material. Photography, projection and spatial construction extended the work beyond the single image, while the recurring figure continued to move through questions of identity, belonging and transformation.



Visitors were invited to bring objects gathered from the surrounding landscape, including stones, shells, feathers, seaweed and branches. Over the course of the exhibition, these contributions accumulated within the gallery, gradually altering the installation and introducing the presence of the wider environment into the space.


The boundary between the natural world and the exhibition became increasingly porous, with landscape entering the gallery not only through image, but through material, memory and participation. 


A circle of stones and dark organic material encloses an animal skull, with feathers and additional gathered objects extending from its edge.
Glass vessels, shells, stones and other gathered natural materials are arranged on a wooden gallery floor.
A small arrangement of natural objects sits in the foreground, with a larger circular arrangement of stones and shells beyond it.
An upright volcanic rock is surrounded by a crescent of white fragments, with a smaller spiral arrangement beside it.
An eye-shaped sculpture made from dark organic material surrounds a nest-like centre containing stones and a pale shell.
Two footprint-shaped openings are formed within a dark mass of organic material arranged on a wooden floor.

Continuing the Story: The Spirit of Man


One contribution to Elemental developed beyond the exhibition itself. Artist Tracey Breen created a set of handmade rune stones using rocks gathered from a local beach near Reykjavik. The runes were incorporated into the installation as part of the collaborative process.


Following the exhibition, the stones were returned to the landscape through a short performance film titled The Spirit of Man. In the work, the runes are placed back into the sea, completing a cycle that began with their collection from the landscape.


The gesture introduced a recurring idea that would continue through later works: objects move between landscape, ritual, transformation and return.