Visions from Arcadia

"Contemplating the paradox of man’s attempt to create peace through a process of conflict, Visions from Arcadia reflects on the cyclical nature of war and considers the notion that despite our awareness of an alternative, that peace begets peace, mankind seems bound by a chain of conflict that cannot be broken.
Central to the work is a sense of the pastoral English landscape as the fictional refuge of a lost utopia. As such, this construct appears to enable individual soldiers to step outside of their engagement with contemporary conflict and its subsequent potential for traumatic consequence. Here they are free to surrender to contemplation, to exist without motion or resistance, to be rendered inert. Extracted from any obvious reference to confrontation these men are pictured here alone, enveloped by the natural world as they are gradually immersed within a vision inspired by Virgil’s Arcadia."