Beacon Hill Nature Reserve is an area of chalk grassland, woods and scrub, a short distance from the sea and from the city of Brighton and Hove.

It is a natural haven for both wildlife and residents.

I have visited the reserve regularly over the past year and responded to the quiet and elusive beauty of the location and to the components of its make up.

Some images are made as simple photographic observations and some made with scanners as direct contact traces of samples from the site. Others are made though microscopes.

Content to not necessarily understand the complexity of the place, but determined to connect with, and visualise, something of its inherent nature.

Jim Cooke April 2022

The images on display include woodland, shrubs, flowers, bugs, mermaid’s purses, seeds, berries, dust, mud, dead leaves, etc. a combination of the indigenous and the invasive. Plants and creatures, native to this environment, that have prospered in this habitat alongside those brought in by wind, birds, footfall, by design or accident.

All of the samples and specimens from the site that I have worked with were displaced by the elements, blown down by the wind, battered down by the rain, desiccated by the sun, trodden down by animals or humans.

Or naturally dropped, withered, at the end of their natural cycle.

In keeping with the country code and the ethos of Beacon Hub nothing was taken away, for my purpose of image making, that was not already spent.

The work will be exhibited:

On the exterior of the Beacon Hub Eco-education & Visitor Centre. Marine Drive. Rottingdean. BN2 7HG  7-29 May 2022.

At the sea end of the Ovingdean Pedestrian Tunnel. 7-29 May 2022 .

At Phoenix Art Space Open Studios. 10-14 Waterloo Place. Brighton. BN2 9NB        21-22 May 2022.

A small ‘Lab’ with microscopes will be set up for visitors:

At Beacon Hub 14-15 May. 11-5

At Phoenix Art Space. Studio 4C2. 21-22 May. 11-5

Supported using public funding by Arts Council England