Simon Kirby

I am interested in the ways in which places resonate with us not only through wide landscapes, but also in the small scale, through plants and stones - seemingly humble objects that nevertheless trigger our ancestral memories. For this series of drawings, rendered with ballpoint pen and robotic drawing machines, I have been collecting images of lichen in different Scottish environments: coast, moorland, and temperate rainforest. Lichen is the result of a symbiosis of algae and fungi, and raises fundamental questions about the evolution of life, the nature of species, and even what it means to be an individual. It has defied attempts to be recreated in the lab, but nevertheless thrives in different forms across all environments. With these drawings, I aim to honour the experience of glimpsing the strangeness of the worlds that lichens reveal if we take the time to stop and look. I am interested in the ways in which places resonate with us not only through wide landscapes, but also in the small scale, through plants and stones - seemingly humble objects that nevertheless trigger our ancestral memories. For this series of drawings, I have been collecting images of lichen in different Scottish environments: coast, moorland, and temperate rainforest. Lichen is the result of a symbiosis of algae and fungi, and raises fundamental questions about the evolution of life, the nature of species, and even what it means to be an individual. It has defied attempts to be recreated in the lab, but nevertheless thrives in different forms across all environments. With these drawings, I aim to honour the experience of glimpsing the strangeness of the worlds that lichens reveal if we take the time to stop and look.