Becky Comber’s artistic practice is informed by her prolonged exposure and personal intimacy with the environment. Her most recent work, Cross Quarter Day – Wild Carrot, expands on her interest to witness, study and articulate the intricacies of the seasons with particular emphasis on the cross quarter day: those 4 midpoints in the seasonal calendar year between the solstice and equinox cycles. Comber’s focused investigations of this phenomenon are demonstrated in this piece by her study of the wild carrot plant (more commonly known as queen anne’s lace). Through her photographic lens, Comber captures the subtle shifts of the wild carrot’s passing maturity following the cross quarter day in August leading into the autumnal equinox.
Following collection of these photographs, a refined process of photo deconstruction, manipulation, and collaborative reassembly created the work in its final form. Foreground elements of Comber’s photographs were meticulously hand cut and arranged in her studio, afterwhich Smokestack’s digital printmaker, Jonathan Groeneweg, reconstructed these cut pieces into newly elevated compositions that blur the boundaries of focus and perceived passing of time.
