Observing nature and how the living organisms compose its act is something architects, scientists and artists have been doing for thousands of years. Most of the time, the philosophy of biomimicry results to mechanisms that imitate the way things work in nature, either individually (observing the form of an animal or a specific plant) or on a larger scale. Thomas Jackson was mesmerized by a macroscopic natural phenomenon, that being the way different species choose to form flocks and move as a unit. He even describes the movement of swarming locusts and schooling fish as “images that evoke a mixture of fear and fascination”.
His installations are consisted of everyday objects such as plates, straws and plastic cups, creating an intense dialogue between the natural and the fabricated. The photographs could not be less qualitative: saturated backgrounds give the ostensibly sudden explosions a feeling of a carefully planned choreography while the scenery itself intensifies the feelings Jackson noted. The contradiction emanating from this conceptually perplexed imagery aims to bring the dual substance of these everyday things in the spotlight, hoping that it will set off new interlocutions between the artist and his environment, either this is the art community or nature itself.