I am an artist and arts educator from the North East of Scotland, living and working in Glasgow, with a multi-disciplinary practice of sculpture, illustration, photography and installation.
My dad is a geologist, my nana also studied geology, and I spent a lot of time outdoors growing up, in forests and on beaches, which has informed a lot of my practice.
I host educational workshops with schools, charities, community groups and arts organisations to develop skills in art, design, collaboration, skill sharing, to facilitate discussion, and raise awareness surrounding environmental issues.
www.jenniferargo.com
My work explores natural systems, while using the patterns that exist in the physical universe as a metaphor for community.
I create illustrative studies, sculptures, installations and photographs depicting patterns that exist across natural systems, from molecules and microorganisms, up to megafauna, macro geological and ecological processes, to universal dynamics.
My work highlights that everything is interconnected, that systems, from our own physical, chemical and biological processes to different terrestrial and marine species, their migratory routes and food chains, ecosystems and communities, to the water, carbon and nitrogen cycles that make life on this planet possible, are all connected and interdependent. From our daily habits to geological time frames, we are always a part of, connected and contributing to broader natural systems and communities beyond the timespan and contexts of our lives.
I use graphite to draw with as it is a soft crystallite form of carbon, which is a universal material. We are made of carbon (it is the second most abundant chemical element we are composed of after oxygen), as are geological, botanical, biological and organic phenomenon across the planet. Carbon is universal, made in the nuclear fusion reactors that we call stars, it connects everything, and my drawings highlight that everything is connected; we are just one part of a much broader complex of systems, of space, time and natural phenomenon.
I notice these patterns throughout different environments, systems, processes and formations, from molecular structures to our own nervous systems and neural networks in the human body, the vascular systems of leaves and plants, to local and international ecosystems, to geological processes that take place over millennia, up to planetary spatial dynamics, and patterns in the cosmic microwave radiation background - a remnant of the Big Bang that can still be detected today. I see these interconnected patterns and dynamics and think that it is beautiful that everything is connected, and that we are just one miniscule part of a much bigger system and time scale.
"The Earth is 4.5 billion years old, and modern humans have been around for around a mere 200,000 years. Yet in that time we have fundamentally altered the physical, chemical and biological systems of the planet on which we and all other organisms depend.
In the past 60 years in particular, these human impacts have unfolded at an unprecedented rate and scale. This period is sometimes known as the Great Acceleration. Carbon dioxide emissions, global warming, ocean acidification, habitat destruction, extinction and widescale natural resource extraction are all signs that we have significantly modified our planet." - Natural History Museum - What is the Anthropocene?
I think that we should try to preserve the life on this planet, the only one we know of that supports life, and try not to irreversibly knock the carbon, nitrogen and water cycles of our planet out of balance, so that life can be sustained on this planet, and that ecosystems have time to adapt and recover, in the little time that we are individually and collectively a part of them as a species, and hopefully much further into the future.
I am currently working with marine biologists in the run up to COP26, to chart migratory routes and food chains of interconnected marine species that are changing due to climate change, between the Arctic Ocean, the UK, internationally, and the knock-on effects these changes are creating. I study Environmental Science in tandem with my creative practice, am a member of Trig Point Collective, and founder of Hithe Studios.