Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
2026
Framed digital photograph printed on Innova smooth cotton high white
690 × 1020 mm
A single ash branch lies submerged in the peaty waters of the Dark Peak, its positioning recalling botanical illustration. Drawing on Norse and Celtic traditions of the ash as a sacred tree, and of water as a threshold to another world, the branch rests between surface and depth, living and dying. The image looks to Millais’s Ophelia, a body held in dark water, and to Cartimandua, queen of the Brigantes, read here through the old idea that the health of a ruler and the health of the land are bound together. As ash dieback spreads across the Peak District, Mediator asks what happens when that bond is broken.
2026
Framed digital photograph printed on Innova smooth cotton high white
690 × 1020 mm
A single ash branch lies submerged in the peaty waters of the Dark Peak, its positioning recalling botanical illustration. Drawing on Norse and Celtic traditions of the ash as a sacred tree, and of water as a threshold to another world, the branch rests between surface and depth, living and dying. The image looks to Millais’s Ophelia, a body held in dark water, and to Cartimandua, queen of the Brigantes, read here through the old idea that the health of a ruler and the health of the land are bound together. As ash dieback spreads across the Peak District, Mediator asks what happens when that bond is broken.