This is Jackie Nickerson's body of work titled 'Terrain'
"TERRAIN
is Jackie Nickerson’s new work in progress. It is about us in the
landscape, how we change the world we inhabit at every moment of our
being human, and how, for better and for worse, the habitus that we
make, in turn, changes who we are.
People and landscapes in TERRAIN intertwine and co-exist at that moment which is central to the moil of the human race – the cultivation of crops and the turning of raw materials into something made.
Gazing steadily at the point at which one element meets another, TERRAIN asks us to think about these imprints left by the material processes of work as the evidence of our presence on the earth, and to think about how contemporary human beings, living in a western urban environment, can relate to the metaphysics of the labor which enables our lives.
In a time when environmental politics thinks too simplistically about the effect that humans have on nature, TERRAIN nudges us towards a deeper understanding of the lived spaces of human activity. Here hands and plants, limbs and fabric, bodies and soil hold close to one another. Visually, the easy sense that there is nature and that there is humanity, and that the two are separate, ceases to exist. In TERRAIN people are, in the fullest sense of that archaic adjective, ‘terrene’, of the earth."
People and landscapes in TERRAIN intertwine and co-exist at that moment which is central to the moil of the human race – the cultivation of crops and the turning of raw materials into something made.
Gazing steadily at the point at which one element meets another, TERRAIN asks us to think about these imprints left by the material processes of work as the evidence of our presence on the earth, and to think about how contemporary human beings, living in a western urban environment, can relate to the metaphysics of the labor which enables our lives.
In a time when environmental politics thinks too simplistically about the effect that humans have on nature, TERRAIN nudges us towards a deeper understanding of the lived spaces of human activity. Here hands and plants, limbs and fabric, bodies and soil hold close to one another. Visually, the easy sense that there is nature and that there is humanity, and that the two are separate, ceases to exist. In TERRAIN people are, in the fullest sense of that archaic adjective, ‘terrene’, of the earth."
Words and photos: Courtesy of Jackie Nickerson
(http://thisispaper.com/Jackie-Nickerson-TERRAIN)
In each of the images the person is hidden, we are not shown their face. Which makes it really impersonal. That person is unrecognizable and we know nothing about them. It tells us possibly of that person's job, working in the environment however... these images could be staged. Nickerson may have selected the person, placed them in that landscape and covered them with the plants and trees. We are not told any of that information. On first glance I would say that she has stopped these people during their work day and captured them, but easily it could be completely and highly staged.
The images are making a statement, and so to not see the individuals face works but personally and in relation to my project, I want to give each person a voice and a name.
In Africa, the people and the land intertwine more than those in the West. This is well known, I doubt that anybody would dispute that fact. Because it is known to people, I don't think that we need to see more images like this. They are not dehumanizing and they are not offensive to anybody or anything, I just really feel passionate about giving the African people a name and being able to connect to the person we are being shown in the photographs.
These images however do take us back to the fairtrade campaigns. We know that a lot of the things, clothes, food we have in the West come from poorer countries and often people make, pick and sort with their bare hands. We do not know those people, we are not told their names and we know nothing of their lives.. yet we happily use, eat and wear the things that they spend their days producing for us. I think that these images really do show this and make it so obvious to us.
It sort of produces a sense of guilt to me.. You never stop to question the person who allowed you to have a lot of the things in your life that you have. We take it for granted.
Although these images are subtle and I feel quite flat... they have such a deepness to them, such a great thought process for the viewer when they begin to break the images down and question the subject and the theme.
I visited London to see this exhibition, but sadly I had missed it by just 1 day. The website I got the details from had not been updated and so all of the work was gone and the exhibition space was empty. It was a shame, because I wanted to see the impact that these images had in person, were they big prints or small prints were they overwhelming or just rather flat against the wall.
