Ian Phillips McLaren is a British artist whose practice combines contemporary and 19th-century photographic techniques, painting, audio, and sculpture. His work explores themes of dementia, memory, identity, and the human connection to the natural world. Process is key to understanding both his work and the transformation it has undergone. “The distance between professional photographer and artist was not a space that I expected to traverse. Yet here I am,”

In his current project ‘Fractured Whispers’, Phillips McLaren explores the remnants of the Celtic rainforests, drawing inspiration from their rich tapestry of myths, folklore, and imagination.

By incorporating foraged pigments from the forest floor into his work, he fosters a symbiotic bond between art and nature, deepening his connection with the landscape and bridging the relationship between the subject, himself, and the viewer, whilst inviting others to reconnect with the natural world. Each piece breathes with the spirit of the land, allowing its magic to unfold within the gallery space.

Phillips McLaren begins his landscape work by immersing himself in the forest, absorbing its energy and essence. This process is a form of phenomenology, where he seeks to understand the landscape through direct experience. Listening, observing, and allowing the forest to reveal its sounds and colour palette.

“I feel a palpable presence and unseen forces that weave between the trees, a sense of something bigger and greater than me and that I’m not alone – this is what fuel’s my creativity”.

There’s a link to the ancient wisdom and primal essence that we, as a modern society, have largely lost touch with. “When I stand among the trees, I feel an unspoken bond with those who came before me, knowing that I occupy a moment in time that echoes back thousands of years”.

Phillips McLaren’s self-portraiture series, ‘The Self & The Other,’ explores identity through the lens of ancient Roman portraiture. By combining traditional 5″x4″ analogue paper negatives of himself with hybrid digital negatives of Roman portraits and fragments, he re-imagines the historical self-portrait, much like the Romans re-imagined Hellenistic Greek art.

He draws inspiration from Edward Steichen’s transformation of photography into an art form, contemporary photographers Sally Mann and The Starn Twins for their embrace of happy accidents, Samuel Beckett’s linguistic experimentation, and Alan Bennett’s insightful monologues.