Sanctuaries 1980

Brian Wood made 'Sanctuaries' from mixed media in four panels. Look at the way he combines sepia landscapes with the black and white images, it’s like a puzzle. As a painter, I think about what it means to see nature broken up like this. The textures here are amazing; you can almost feel the grainy film and rough paper. I see the 'No Trespassing' sign, the exposed roots, and then these fragments of animals below. It’s like he's piecing together different worlds, contrasting ideas of access and denial, wildness and domesticity. My eye keeps going back to the central panel, that tree stump seems so sturdy, like it's holding everything together, but the horizon line is interrupted; we can never quite complete the picture. This reminds me of John Stezaker's collages, he also used fragmentation to open up conversations and make you question what you're seeing. Ultimately, Wood's work suggests that art is a process of constant questioning, it thrives in the space between images and meanings.