Ellie Davies’ Magical Path To The Unknown

BRITISH photographer, Ellie Davies captivates us with her enchanted landscapes with Into The Woods, her latest exhibition of new and recent works at the Crane Kalman Gallery in London. The artist explores our spiritual relationship with the forest, drawing on our imagination to evoke the stuff of fairy tales. Into The Woods forms part of her series, Half Light, a seven year site specific project at the New Forest in Hampshire.

Ellie Davies, Half Light 6, 2016. Photograph: Ellie Davies

Her new work manifests a more compelling and darker presence, one that spontaneously materialises in a diffusion of golden particles over the trails of dead familiars. Gnarled branches and twisted tendrils snare the dense vegetation and murky pools below the forest’s canopy, intensifying our deepest anxieties and subconscious fears.

Ellie Davies, Stars 8. Photograph: Ellie Davies

This time, Davies captures the oppressive quality of the forest, luring us further along its winding paths on our cheerless pursuit of the unknown. She adopts innovative lighting techniques, painted sculptural pieces and skeins of wool to fabricate her ingenious and effective imagery.

Ellie Davies, Half Light 5, 2016. Photograph © Ellie Davies