Murmuration, BEAM Gallery Nottingham, 2022

Murmur (detail) 2,600 (w) x 2,350 (h)

Analogue photos printed onto sliver gelatine emulsion on glass. Oil stick, chinagraph and graphite.

Murmuration is an exhibition at Beam Gallery by artist Wolfgang Buttress. The exhibition presents a significant new work Murmur inspired by one of the most extraordinary phenomena of the natural world.

Through a series of hand-printed analogue photographs printed onto glass and then worked into with sandpaper, oil sticks and graphite to create 42 palimpsests, Murmur explores transient and increasingly rare murmurations witnessed on a series of trips to Netherfield and Attenborough Nature Reserves over Winter 2021/22. Murmur was made with photographer Daniel T Wheeler.

The exhibition includes three paintings and two sculptures inspired by the liminal places and spaces within nature and the intangible energy of natural phenomena like the sun, moon and the movement of murmurations.

Photographs: James Gardiner @gardiner_james

@danieltwheeler @beameditions