Nature spotting

Abstract

In 2010 artist Russel Weekes noticed a horse chestnut branch that had fallen onto the pavement by his feet. There was something about the structure of this branch that suggested a dog and sparked the daily exercise that Weekes calls "nature spotting" - a simultaneously meaningful and mundane activity that renders the quotidian material of the world (leaf fall, moss, lichen, bits of bark) weighted with new meaning. These items become signs, cyphers and tokens of suggestion, creating connections in the imagination of the alert observer and loading the everyday with its own unique language. Russell Weekes was born in Hertford, grew up in Nottingham, and currently lives in South London. Through the use of observations and misreadings, his work attempts to focus attention on easily overlooked aspects of everyday life.