A five day virtual residency with Mayes Creative, December 2020.

At the start of the five day residency I placed a sheet of paper coated with a circle of cyanotype chemistry, on a table in my garden. Over the duration of the week the print darkened and even seemed to take on a green hue from the moss on the table as the paper was saturated with rain water.

Astronomer Carolyn Kennett invited us to ‘Walk the Universe’ inspired by the 1769 Transit of Venus. Using strides as astronomical units I retraced the steps of a familiar walk up our local hill. Along the way I photographed natural objects to represent the celestial bodies. I mounted the final photographs in a 40 page concertina book, representing the 40 astronomical units from The Sun all the way to Pluto.

I am captivated by how the ancients saw the stars and the idea of archaeoastronomy. I did some research into the Pleiades star cluster, the seven sisters: Alkyone, Elektre, Maia, Merope, Taygete, Kelaino and Asterope. The light from these stars has taken 400 years to reach us. In gold thread I’ve sewn the Pleiades constellation onto a cyanotype print, referencing the theory that gold comes from stardust, the explosion of a supernova.