Absence of Light

Accompanying the sculptures and monumental drawings of When the Moon Split, this was my second series of experiments with using the soldering iron as a drawing tool. 

Starting with handmade heavy-duty watercolour paper and layering it with successive washes of iron oxide pigment, I then burnt onto the blackened surface, pinprick by pinprick. 

Echoing the experience of night vision where the eyes adjust to the conditions of darkness, the image comes gradually into focus: an impression of the surface of the moon, pitted with craters, sculpted by millennia of crashing meteors.