Crystal Filter by Helen Smith

This is the view from the artist’s window, seen through and around a thin slice of geological crystal. For this work, the artist draws upon a euphoric experience, a state of heightened senses: saturated colour; amplified sound, racing thoughts and pin-sharp clarity. Boundaries between the body and the environment oscillate and dissolve, with one element becoming the other. The body flows into the surrounding landscape, and the landscape flows back into the body, forming a non-ending feedback loop. It is a fully immersive experience.

In the photograph the crystal slice echoes the formation and colour of the partially obscured tree, the crystal becomes a liquefied and then a petrified version of the tree. Panning in and out, moving between the ‘micro’ view of the crystal to the ‘macro’ vision of the cityscape, engenders a fluid experience, a loss of equilibrium, and a sense of distance. This slippage from one scale to another, enables us to develop multiple viewpoints and perspectives. A strategy which allows us to interrogate ‘the real’, as well as viewing the world through different lenses. This work was made during Covid lockdown and reflects upon how the pandemic has changed our worlds. As well as a time of isolation and confinement, it was also a time for the artist to focus on acquiring different strategies for survival and transformative living.

Lead image: Crystal Filter 2021, © Helen Smith