NASH

SEASHORE PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANDY HUGHES

CONTENTS MY ROOM WINDOWS ROOF WALLS

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Paul Nash gave a sense of ‘aliveness’ to everything, even inanimate matter. More than 80 years later Jane Bennet also described in her book Vibrant Matter explores the notion that all matter is pulsing with life.

In the summer of 2018 and 2019 Hughes traveled along the coast from Cornwall through Somerset, Dorset, and the Kent Coast, visiting Hastings and completing his journey at Dungeness. Over the recent past, he has been drawn to the work of Paul Nash, in particular, his writings and visualisations of inanimate objects and his depiction of wrecked materials such as Totes Meer (Dead Sea) 1940–1.

The suggestion of a ghostly presence in the material depicted in this scene resonates with Hughes own practice and exploration of the seashore and lost matter. The two journeys form part of an ongoing research project exploring pilgrimage with specific references to place, agency and how Hughes own positionality might be located within another artist engrossed with materialism and the metaphysical.

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