Elements of Nature

Examining the brittle relationship between human beings and nature through figures in the landscape

My first arts project, Elements of Nature, began as an essay on our relationship with the

environment. To my mind, the best way to illustrate this was to visually demonstrate our joint vulnerability to global warming. I decided the female form best represents how delicate a species we are, and the landscape would speak for itself.

For my first shot, Elements of Nature, I found the remains of a ship, beached in the sand with its hull eaten away by the elements. Once a testament to our ability to mould metal, it was now succumbing to the powers of nature. Posing the model beside the massive hulk, looking so tiny that a gust of wind would blow her back into the waves, I hoped to convey how fragile we are.

For In Awe of Nature I wanted to recreate a world in which a primitive people, living in an inhospitable environment without understanding weather patterns, looked desperately to the heavens for answers to why the sun disappeared, huge seas engulfed their lands, and plagues decimated their numbers. Placing the model in the foreground of a rain-drenched plateau, with the dolmen in the background while she begged the gods for mercy, I posed the question: Why now, knowing all those answers, do we act in ignorance of the effects of our actions on the climate and the devastating results that occur unless we change our ways?

For Field of Dreams, I discovered an amazing field with dying trees. It reminded me of a Native American burial ground, but also of a post-apocalyptic landscape. I turned the image on its head and by using an infrared filter, which caused the model to almost merge into the tree, with the field becoming neither desolate or beautiful, but a fantasy space that could be either. The choice is ours.

With Lands End, I drew attention to the fact that there is indeed an edge to our beautiful globe. We do not want to reach a situation where our actions have made our lands uninhabitable, and the only solution is outer space for those who have the means to access it. We have watched enough disaster movies to know what that means.

The naked female form best represented how delicate a species we were, and the landscape speaks for itself

two of farrell’s images feature in naked truth: the nude in irish Art, a major exhibition in the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork until the 29th of october.