Enviroart - Images by Bob Coe
Our natural world is under threat from different sources, like many I am concerned with the legacy we are leaving to future generations. The work on this website has been produced as part of my MA Fine Art and BA Creative Art courses.
Major Project - Unnatural Beauty
Unnatural Beauty is the title of the major project I submitted as the final part of my MA Fine Art studies at Norwich University of the Arts.
I have produced manipulated photographic images showing the wealth of nature that may be lost to environmental degradation using the transitory nature of flora as metaphor for how we affect our environment. My images highlight pollution from different sources, including stormwater discharges in our rivers.
Other work from the MA course
For other modules of my MA Fine Art course I also worked on a series of images exploring environmental issues:
The Unseen uses Infra-Red photography to highlight the pollution of our waterways caused by the practice of allowing storm water discharges (where excess sewage and rainwater are discharged to our watercourses).
In Metaphor I used pre-exposed or prepared films together with cross processing and multiple images as a metaphor for the dangers of manipulating nature or the environment.
Neonicotinoids are pesticides banned across the EU because they have a devastating effect on bees. The UK government relaxed the ban to allow one of the pesticides to be used on sugar beet plants. I created my own set of ‘postage stamps’ to highlight the issue.
In Collage I develop further the work that I started in my Cyanotype series and collaged a small area of colour onto the print.
My work Flora in Extremis is a series produced as part of my BA in Creative Arts. It aims to graphically convey some of the threats to plant life looking at excessive use of pesticides and the effects of global warming. It also addresses the issue of plant blindness which is described as “an entire disconnect in people’s minds between plants and our utter dependence on them”. It contains four parts; Cyanotypes, Pesticides, Surimono and Grave Flowers.