Paul Benney’s digital painting Element explores his ongoing interest in religious and alchemical iconography of the Renaissance and later alongside contemporary symbology. Using contemporary digital software to adjust the painted surface, he gives unexpected life and dimension to traditional 2D imagery. This uncanny effect also mirrors some of the alchemical practices of the Middle Ages that were rooted in the exploration of the unknown.

Benney’s continuing collaboration with Nitin Sawhney can be heard as the soundtrack to this new work. It references the childrens' wind up merry-go-round and simultaneously takes us to a darker place of existential foreboding.