Elissa Jane Diver

Elissa Jane Diver was born in London, spent her childhood in Finland, and now lives in Brighton on the south coast of England. Elissa’s interest in photography lies in its singular relationship to the physical world, and the way in which the photograph holds a capricious mirror to reality. Her work searches for connections between the physical and metaphysical and is always anticipating an encounter with the unexpected. 

Education:

MA Photography Royal College of Art 2022

BA (Hons) Photography (First Class) University of Brighton 2012

BA (Hons) French and English Literature University of Southampton 1988

Upcoming Exhibition:

15th-19th August - After The Waiting Room - Copeland Gallery, London

My recent practice has been a response to a rewilding site in West Sussex. Rewilding is defined as an attempt to restore eco-systems to the point where they are self-sufficient and often begins with an intervention such as the reintroduction of a missing species. When the Knepp rewilding project began over twenty years ago, Long Horn Cattle, Tamworth pigs, Roe, Red, and Fallow Deer were brought onto the land. These animals through their grazing activities now keep a check on the emerging scrub, preventing the dominance of closed canopy woodland, encouraging instead more diverse vegetation and new habitats.

A deer fence was built around the entire 3500 acre site. In order to create a place that could run wild, it first had to be contained. My practice also involves the creation of a framework or space in which to make work, with the knowledge that there will be both planned and unplanned outcomes. I am always waiting for something to happen that is beyond my control.

I began to think of the studio as a metaphor for the rewilding site. An enclosed space that could nurture and contain a wilding of the imagination. I made my own interventions to kick-start the process, by bringing found objects from the site into the studio.