Aoife van Linden Tol

These are new works in a series that began at Hackney Wicked festival in 2018. 

Using nitrocellulose, which was invented by Alexander Parkes in Hackney Wick in 1862, I exploded vintage Ordinance survey maps, which track a period of intense industrial development of the area. This series was created at a time when the original industrial character of the area has almost disappeared to make way for residential developments sweeping away the unlikely refuge for artists that was created since the 90's. The work references and kisses goodbye to these two golden eras. Invented as the world's first man made plastic, nitrocellulose under the name Parkesine. ‘Cellulose’ had many uses including celluloid film, X- ray films but also happened to be highly reactive and was soon used to create the explosives such as as guncotton and flash paper. These works are created with black powder and nitrocellulose referencing the history my own art practice and Hackney Wick's history where my studio was located for many years.

This series came about after some dedicated studio time taking a deeper look at the artistic influence of my father, Koenraad van Linden Tol, who had just passed away. I am an artist because he was an artist. I wanted to understand the subtleties of his influence on my work. One thing that I observed is how much I always loved his striking use of colour. With my own work I am often consumed by the scratched, scorched tones of the materials I work with. I rarely introduce colour to the equation. So, I spent time exploring ink and paint, materials he often used, but just as in my days in art school I struggled to connect. I am not writing paint off just yet, maybe I just haven't found the way that I need to work with it yet, but I did find another route, my own route. One of my favourite things about colour is monochrome. Getting lost in the dreamy depths that a singular hue provides. It must be something about the way the light is all bouncing into the eye at exactly the same frequency that makes my eye dilate hungrily and gives me an immense sense of pleasure. The Mono collection explores this simple idea - colour and explosive energy.

The Big Bang series is inspired by the thought of the first sparks of light beginning to move through the universe after the mass of plasma created after the big bang cooled enough to allow the photons to escape. For me it represents an exciting moment of release, expansion and adventure. The series is also inspired by the way we search for information from the cosmos using techniques such as spectroscopy which can tell us the makeup of far away objects including ancient stars and the atmospheres of planets.

Created for Wild Alchemy Journal FIRE edition this series includes a multi sensory print. Look at it through your mobile device to activate a hidden dimension of the work using augmented reality. 

A double mini print & journal set will also be released together.