In reaction to our media led sensory anaesthetisation, and worn by the inadequacy of late political rhetoric, I have constructed a forest built from accumulated memory and the ghosts of trees. Having spent a period of two Winters’ visiting Kensington Gardens in central London, this work inverts the decorative Arcadian layout in an attempt to restore a sense of the natural in this cultivated, somewhat synthetic city ‘wilderness’.

The city park offers an escape valve – a window leading the weary city dweller to reconstructed, consumable nature. Although the essence of these spaces can appear pseudo-natural, some of these great trees actually predate the infrastructure of the city, and despite their accommodated appearance have witnessed centuries of human endeavour.

These works provide an emotive and atmospheric lament for that deeply ingrained aspect of the human psyche, our deeply held association with the primeval forest as spiritual home, which is lost, but which, in contemplating these visual idylls can be exhumed. These works act as a plaintiff call for that which can be regenerated.

Through the production of these works has come a synthesis between reality and abstraction distilled through darkness. Contemplation is brought to bear upon mournful sensory visions of restored primordial beauty. One recognises the possibility of slowing down, and discovers the still small voice of calm that in the darkness may yet be visible.

Nicholas Hughes 21/01/2007