Natural Order: Purdy Hicks Gallery, London

Natural Order 

The environment appears to have been monopolised, probably understandably, by ecologists, but this has often obscured other environmental issues. The artists in this exhibition question the relation between man and his environment. In his 'Imaginary Homecoming' series Jorma Puranen recalls how the Samis' very natural relationship with the land has, over the years, been more or less obliterated. Natasha Daintry's response to a 19th Century 'Portrait of an Indian' evokes the abuse of ideas on evolution, while Jonathan Delafield Cook (who has spent years studying Darwin) has focused his recent drawings on the breeding of over-large scale animals and vegetation in farming. Peter Randall Page finds a mathematical precision in nature. Sue Arrowsmith and Awoiska van der Molen are playing with the ways we perceive the world around us. Arrowsmith repeats the elusiveness of nature. Van der Molen is looking for the core to emerge out of the dark, out of her use of light. How much does nature tell us? Susan Derges began her career by taking photography back to its basics and passing light through water in the straightest of depictions. But even as she reduced her personal impact on the image to an apparent minimum, she could not stop asking, 'How much are we imposing our ideas of order on nature?' Our vision of nature is always a partnership, however small a part we play.