‘Stevens’s work has, for some years now, been concerned with the idea of ‘’everything’. This interest has its origin in the 19th Century plein-air tradition of artists drawing their subject matter from their local surroundings. But today this has become problematic. What now constitutes ‘’local’ includes images spanning horizons that stretch from our own interiors to the farthest regions of space. The appearance of reality itself has multiplied to include high-speed and time-lapse, x-ray and infrared, the cinematic, the virtual and the prosthetic. Stevens is haunted by the thought that there may now be more images in the world than there are things that they depict or represent. How can we find meaning in this plethora of visual material, a way through this forest of signs? Instead of offering specific answers to these questions, Stevens is more interested in looking at how we attempt to understand the totality of this landscape. He sees something definingly human in our need to order and make sense of that which is beyond our grasp.’ – Andrew Mummery
