Continuing with collecting material whilst I walk I'm exploring our notions of 'seeing' through the theme of the 'Eye'
The debris is transformed and then taken back to the landscape from where it's been 'found' to be photographed in situ'.
The image includes elements of iconography such as the oak galls, which originally were used to make ink, and allude to the process of mark making. 

'Bound together in step' N.Gear 2014

Two faces; one Wordsworths' original life mask juxtaposed against the 'Face of Coxmoor' - a mask composed of material collected whilst walking Coxmoor Woods, now showing at St Johns' Library in Cambridge until the 31st of October 2014.

If you visit ask the Porter at St Johns' to see the exhibition in the Library, and you'll be let in for free!

St John's College 'New' Library

'Blue Balloon [I wandered lonely as a cloud]' N.Gear © 2014
Text panel & Video.

The Art Language Location exhibition starts 15th October 2014 and this work will be on display at St Johns college library Monday to Friday 9am - 5pm each day, finishing on 31st October.

'The Face of Coxmoor' drawing one N.Gear 2014

My sculpted face using found materials has been taken back into the woods where I walk and photographed amongst the debris left to rot in the undergrowth.
I've been working on the printed photo by drawing into the surface, playing with notions of memory, reality, unreality, and adding another layer of life into the work.
I plan to do an A2 size version, to be part the ALL Exhibition at St Johns College Library Cambridge later in October 2104.

the 'Face of Coxmoor' N.Gear Aug 2104

Using debris collected during my Coxmoor woods walks this face has been 'emerging', which is also a response to the mask of the poet Wordsworth seen earlier in the year at St Johns college Cambridge.
The blue plastic in the photo I came across whilst walking and have nestled the face within it's folds. The mix of man made and natural materials reflecting the way in which we use the environment around us. 
The 'Face of Coxmoor' will feature in the 'Art language Location' exhibition in Cambridge during October 2014. 

'Letter [from the edge] 2014' N.Gear

This drawing just completed looks through the prism of some plastic rubbish found whilst walking the 'edgeland' landscape of the Coxmoor estate, Nottinghamshire. 

It combines a photograph along with physical marks made to the A2 print surface; juxtaposing the mundane and profound in my everyday walk.

 

'Blue Balloon Chamonix' Video Stills - April 2014

My 'Blue Balloon' project continues to develop thinking of the ephemeral nature of our lives in the landscape. with reference to the work to the poet William Wordsworth.
The work will be complete and shown at St Johns College Cambridge for the 'Art:Language:Location' exhibition event taking place city wide in Cambridge this coming October 2014. 

This blue balloon was caught and dancing in the wind out in the rural landscape and as I came upon it I was reminded of Wordsworths 'I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud' poem.
From this kernel of an idea I'm developing a video work changing and subverting the original poem to create a dialogue between past notions of the sublime with the current reality of a transient landscape.

'Mixed Source' © N.Gear 2014

Evidence bag 3 ready for sending out in the post as part of my 'Slowpost' project.
The discarded boot acts as a metaphor speaking of our place in the landscape; sometimes we want to be part of it, other times we just don't seem to care.

'Resonance' N.Gear © 2014

Another 'evidence bag' ready to post out via Royal Mail as part of my 'Slowpost' project.
This work reflects a walk started through a graveyard and landing up in the centre of Nottingham, thinking about the past linking with our present.

'This Is [Live…?] Two Hundred V/m.' N.Gear © 2014.

A new year a new project called 'Slowpost'. I'm creating 'Evidence Bags' from completed walks talking of place, and how we are linked to and affect the environment.
Each bag when completed is send out via Royal Mail to a recipient who is invited to display the piece at home as a work of art for a few days / weeks / months before passing it onto a friend. 
As part the project the recipients can join in the conversation via Facebook to upload photos of the bag in situ as well as any other comments & reactions.
If you'd like to join in then email nick@artofgear.co.uk with your address to post a bag to.

'Caution' N.Gear Jan 2014

A section from a recent photographic work combining the image from a walk with the text 'caution' found amongst the grass in the photo. 

Whilst walking we 'read' the landscape often without realising it and this piece makes a play on this, and the notion of what  'caution' may mean to us in our individual environments.