John
Elliott

John Elliott describes Firefly as a “series of snapshots recording the path of an object through space or as a moment frozen in time showing a cloud of objects.” The multidiscplinary artist, who takes mathematics and science as a starting point for his work, is interested in the relationship between the natural environment and both present and speculative inerventions within it. 

The objects themselves are like cargo cult replicas of hi tech machinery from the time when we imagined the future would be clean and bright and utopian. Instead we got the future that became our present - a world on the edge of climate and ecological breakdown in which our access to open space is being increasingly privatised and curtailed.

The countryside in particular is a focal point as the artist focuses on a romantic landscape that has become increasingly privatized and subject to unsustainable environmental practices. Firefly’s colorful, even playful geometric components hover over a barley field, marking an esoteric route or signaling that something has passed in that direction, perhaps camouflaged by outward appearance.

Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.


Firefly, 2022. Wood, steel, paint, and vinyl, dimensions variable






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