For as long as Jon Buck can remember, he has been interested in the natural world and its magnificent diversity of form and colour. Unlike many artists however, Buck’s inspiration to create art that celebrates this diversity is not purely focused on visual representation but richly informed by our scientific and cultural evolution.

Inspired by recent research suggesting that it is our Superior Pattern Processing abilities that have given humans a unique advantage over all other species, Buck began a series of sculpture and works on paper that explore the profound importance of pattern to delight our eyes but also to challenge our perception with positive and negative binary shapes that allude to camouflaging or aposematic animal markings whilst also revealing a cryptic symbol within.

This wall relief titled 'Fooling Around' relates to the work of biologist Anthony Barnosky who introduced the Court Jester as a cultural
metaphor to represent the occasional catastrophic events that interrupt gradual change with mass extinction or rapid transformations. In this work, Buck develops the Court Jester to become The Fool symbolised by his instantly recognisable cap. The important difference for Buck is that where Barnosky’s cataclysmic event can be random, we humans have become the fool of the Anthropocene era as we continue to ignore our effect on the planet.