David looks on

2023

508x406mm (20x16in)
Archival Pigment Print

From the series Before the War

‘Before the War’ draws upon an archive of lidar scans that document non-places and edgelands within the urban landscape. The scans were captured during psychogeographic excursions within a nation that, unbeknownst at the time, was on the verge of armed conflict. Now in their digital form these scanned topographies, which were once static markers of time and place, raise questions about permanence, transition, and legacy in the face of geopolitical changes.

Simmons takes these scans into a 4-dimensional digital space, allowing him to remotely revisit what have become inaccessible locations. Using virtual cameras, he creates what he calls ‘dimensional photographs’, a term which considers the 3d scan as both an expansion and a convergence of photography and sculpture. These images, with an aesthetic reminiscent of Triple-A video games, capture the ruptures in time, space, and geopolitics, turning them into emotionally charged memories of a land transformed by human actions.

The digital preservation of these landscape fragments prompts reflection on issues of power and permanence, not only through armed conflict but more broadly in the context of political complacency and inaction in our current era of climate breakdown and mass extinction.

This layered exploration, spanning artistic, socio-political and ecological dimensions, urges consideration of the profound shifts occurring in both the physical and conceptual realms. It calls for a reflection on our collective role in the irreversible changes we are witnessing in our planet’s history.