To Be Wrapped

December 2021

Close to our holiday home I noticed young trees that had been ‘wrapped’ – a combination of mesh and wire attached to wooden uprights and wrapped around each tree to serve as some form of protection from the harsh winds.

 It was 4 o’clock in the afternoon (the golden hour) and I was taking photographs of these saplings. The combination of green mesh, the colour of surgical scrubs, the blue sky, the fading light, created a hazy dreamscape – you became aware of the the network of fine threads, the insubstantially of the torn gauze, the firm upright support, the unbending square wire.

 Photography allows for keen observation – it allows you to find the extraordinary in the ordinary. A simple tree but with 2 forms of ‘protection’ – the mesh was used to enclose, to wrap around, to protect; the vertical upright there to act as a strong unbending support.

 And I thought about what it means to be wrapped? How there are these very subtle differences. Being enclosed almost has a circular form to it – a blanket wrapped around a baby, a human embrace - a softness, an emotion, love.

And ‘strength’ plays to a more vertical form – the gesture of soldiers at attention, power dressing, crutches. There is a physicality to it, almost a dominance.

To be wrapped gives you a sense of security and strength but it can also make you feel friendship, warmth and confidence.

This new body of work looks at these dualities and the value of both – numerous life examples that play to these nuances.