This work for the CRASH show developed from a series of experiments conducted during a residency at Foundation Obras in Portugal in September 2017.
Partly responding to the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the installation reflects on the fragility of life, hope, and inequality. The paper-based works incorporate drawing materials such as graphite, charcoal, and silver pigment, referencing the towers through the interplay of dynamic brush marks contrasted with the rigid cuts resembling ventilation shafts.
A large five-metre-long piece collapsed due to the cuts being too wide, yet this collapse became integral to the CRASH show. New video work was recorded from the fallen piece, suggesting an evolving artistic process.
Materials sourced from the environment around Evoramonte, including marble dust, were used to cover dead cork tree trunks as monuments within the landscape. Here, marble dust is presented in a pile on a mirror plate, evoking the idea of a collapsed monument. Dead cork trees, hosting lichen—not as parasites but as a symbiotic presence—are displayed as forms reminiscent of lungs on mirror plates. During this period, a devastating fire at the artist’s storage destroyed much of a lifetime’s work. Ash mixed with charcoal, silver, and graphite dust is presented as a symbolic brick. Together, these elements embody the themes of living, cremation, and monument.