Sprig. // Information.
In January 2011 official figures showed that the UK economy had unexpectedly shrank by 1.5% between October and December 2010. This was a time of austerity measures, cuts, high unemployment, widespread student protest over rise in tuition fees. And a cold and bitter winter.
The UK Government claimed the contraction could be explained by December's weather and The Office for National Statistics appeared to back that up, stating that without the heavy snow, GDP would have been "broadly flat". The Chancellor, George Osborne declared that the Government's deficit reduction plans would not be "blown off course by bad weather".
The statement, challenged by the Opposition in Parliament and widely mocked online, inspired the creation of a series of images of English landscape covered in frost and snow.
The images formed the visual and conceptual foundation for Tsafrir's installation ascensIon. They were shot on colour transparencies (Fuji Provia, 6x6 and 35mm) using available lights, without filters. Like Tsafrir's other photographic work, they were not manipulated or retouched in post-production - preserving their mimetic essence and what Tsafrir saw and wanted to document.
A selection of these images was later presented as part of ascensIon. as an assembly, a large composition, of prints trapped in heavy lead frames, suspended from a high ceiling. Here they are presented as individual images, set in sequence, in their original, raw format.
Sprig. is part of diG.shaKe.riSeandblEEed,myloVe.