British artist Ross Holden has always been fascinated by his surroundings, and his working practice very much reflects this. His photo collages, a series in which he has developed and perfected over a period of ten years, present an investigative observation of the world around us, as he takes fragments of information obtained visually through his camera and uses them to create mesmerising patterns that represent an alternative and thought-provoking perception of the world we live in.

The basis for the new screenprint comes from photographs, which for Holden are the ‘residue’ of the moment, day, or country they represent. The initial idea of the new work is built using these photographic fragments, which are then developed into the vision for the final piece by taking the dominant colour from each photograph and filling the space with it, as if breaking that passing moment down to its simplest form. At this point, its only the colour, framed within the pattern, that’s left of that ‘gone’ moment.

As Holden travelled around the world he often thought of Earth as the gravitational centre for his pictures. In life we often gravitate to places, to people, to feelings and one day none of these places, persons or emotions will exist - it will all just be that brief moment in time. This gradual distancing of our memories over time has many similarities to Earth’s gravity which slowly fades from the surface to a distance of 13 million miles where the gravity is no longer dominant. Once our memories become objects in the distant past, we may only clearly remember distinctive details, such as the smell of our parents’ new car when we were children, the smile of a stranger we never got introduced to - or the colour of the dress worn by our first date.

The patterns seen in the new work were, as with previous works, were collected while Holden was travelling. He actively looked for what connected us all; habits, emotions, colours, symbols, and eventually whittled each down to one or a few colours. The colours selected for the work therefore both speak a universal language, as well as having a very personal connection to the artist. Where others might just see the colour, Holden still see the moment or object in some of the colours - the orange of the car that pulled off the motorway and the old man getting out to talk to him, the orange hoody of the girl in Kyrgyzstan, the faded blue of an old sun bleached picture. Holden says he still recalls some of the moments or objects represented by some of the colours, for example one of the cream hues in the print is from an old air conditioning unit that kept him awake at night.

Working in this way to achieve the final colour palette for the print means that this work is not about colour theory or placing one perfect hue next to another, but a documentation of the world around us, representing taxis, skin, tarmac, skies, wildlife, candy wrappers, fast food outlets, clothing and everything else, which is not uniformed or balanced.

Holden’s most recent series of creations - which includes the new print edition 13 Million Miles (Diamond) being presented here - sees the artist develop his original idea even further by presenting geometric structures that appear merely abstract at first glance. A fascination for Holden is the similarities between patterns and structures that were in use simultaneously across continents before there was any knowledge of the others’ existence. His theory for this is that it stems from the straight lines and triangular shapes that could be naturally drawn between stars, and this is reflected in the structure of the new print; the all important white line that holds in the blocks of colour.

Having previously worked predominantly in the photographic medium, for the new piece, Holden embraces the process of silkscreen printing for the first time. As this well-researched body of work has progressed, it has become significantly more abstract in appearance, as the visual references have developed from figurative photographic evidence to more of a suggestion of the original source, based around dominant colours and patterns. Therefore the transition from photography to screenprinting seemed only natural. By adding gentle embossing to the outline of the print, Holden brings part of the image out and away from the paper, causing us to contemplate something our own memories leaping out from our subconscious and into our conscious mind.

13 Million Miles (Diamond) is a print edition of 50 and available to buy exclusively from today at the release price of £990.00 See the work in more detail and other available pieces by Ross Holden on his artist’s page here .