Thomas Jackson: New Work

“2020 was the year I collaborated with the wind. On every shoot, Northern California’s offshore breezes were my artistic partner, the force that transformed my installations from lifeless pieces of fabric to living things. By harnessing wind I hoped to visualize the invisible, and to open a window onto an aspect of nature’s vast, unseen complexity. As collaborations go it was a tumultuous one—of the twenty or so pieces I built and photographed last year, thirteen were failures—but along the way I developed a newfound closeness to the natural landscape and the rhythmic forces acting upon it. The most important lesson I learned about working with wind—and with nature as a whole—is that any attempt to contain or control it will fail. But if the work can connect with the wind, magical things will happen. Today I feel a renewed appreciation for the world right in front of me, and as a result this Spring feels sweeter than any I can remember.”—Thomas Jackson