“I’ve at all times been fascinated by the concept our perceived actuality is formed by our minds and reflecting our interior world,” says artist Michelle Blancke, whose ethereal images of bushes, glens, and foliage invite us into a well-known but uncanny world. Her lens-based apply explores themes of interdependence, consciousness, and concealment, particularly by way of the topic of nature.
Blancke’s vivid Secret Backyard sequence contains a complete of 5 sub-categories: Realm, Ascent, Essence, Veins, and Origin. Whether or not capturing the waxy floor of an intricately veined leaf or the way in which vines create shadowy veils over gnarled bushes, she’s involved in relationships between “transformation, mysticism, and the skinny veil between the seen and the unseen,” she says. “After I enter woodland, it looks like stepping right into a parallel house the place one thing hidden turns into perceptible.”
A lot of Blancke’s course of entails strolling—shifting by way of forested areas till a sure ambiance or interplay with daylight resonates along with her. “After I {photograph}, I’m responding to that feeling moderately than to the literal scene in entrance of me,” she says.
It’s throughout digital post-production that Blancke begins to make extra deliberate selections, shifting hues “to amplify the emotional tone I sensed within the second,” she says. “The colors are a means of unveiling an interior layer that already felt current whereas I used to be standing there. It’s an try and make the invisible ambiance seen.”
Blancke’s work is on view by way of January 25 as a part of the 2025 Aesthetica Artwork Prize exhibition at York Artwork Gallery. She additionally works carefully with BBA Gallery. Discover extra on the artist’s web site and Instagram.
