LEFTOVER MATTER SERIES
THE INTRODUCTION (2021)
To look beneath the surface is crucial to this body of work in order to explore connections with landscape. To acknowledge that although we dig and we alter, our actions are no match for the earths surface which swallows, churns and spits out the traces of past neglect and forgotten time. Remaining present within the earths surface, these traces are windows to our past. The Introduction explores themes of burial, excavation and mythological connections to landscape. Leftover matter once hidden, emerges from the dark spaces just beneath our feet.
Digging the soil exposes an abundance of discarded and forgotten objects. More often broken, they speak of human activity within place and time. The Leftover Matter Series reveals a collection of things left behind and aims to examine concepts of reuse and growth? It seeks to animate and recreate their story, questioning preconceived ideas of what is considered unwanted.
The Introduction aims to disclose and introduce the found objects. Crossing time and the hierarchies of worth, the common thread that runs through this collection is the essence of being found and kept. It is a process of becoming and an introduction to a new story in the life of the objects. It plays with notions of illusion and trickery, searching for methods of fluidity and life in forms of display. It combines 2 meter ruler (2020), (the animation) a board (the stage), a selection of fragments (the players) and a projector (the mechanism of illusion). The projector becomes a critical component to the work facilitating and enacting the archeology of spirit and trace.
UNTITLED (2021)
Technology is further explored as a means to provide trickery and the illusion of animation in a series titled Untitled (2021). Marina Warner’s text, Phantasmagoria, explores how phantasms, myths, ghosts and spirits continue to fuel the imagination. She writes about historical and contemporary procedures used to transmit life from beyond known domains and describes the ways evolving technologies have fuelled the imagination. “Through ten different vehicles—from wax to film—her book attempts to handle materials through which spirit and spirits have paradoxically taken form in the world…” (2006:12).
Untitled #1 ( ) is a carefully staged operation. The objects are subjected to a process of transformation through trickery of lighting, photography and editing and movement is facilitated through the force of an electric fan. A trace of their former selves, context is intentionally erased where each object is placed singularly within an empty space. The fan disrupts the air and demonstrates a physical presence which fills the space like an ethereal entity. The traces flutter in a manner that suggests instinctual patterns of behaviour.
Untitled #1 ( ) 2021, 40 digital inkjet prints on gloss photo paper, electric fan, brass pins
Untitled #1 (air) 2021, 65 digital inkjet prints on gloss photo paper and brass pins, 132 x 200 cm
Behind the scenes the trickery begins. One object after another is subjected to extreme focus as their image is retained and recorded in photographs. One object per photograph, they shift towards a state of hyperreality. The work is displayed on the wall and pinned along the top edge of each photograph with tacks. Following a pattern with pencil drawn directly onto the wall, traces are left demonstrating the process of installation and emphasising the concept of becoming. Gaps between images appear in the work and refer to absence and intervals. Suggesting spaces between places of encounter, patterns of difference between positive and negative, found and not found create room to breath within the grid. The electric fan is not included in this adaption of Untitled #1 ( ) as the work directs greater focus on the trickery and illusion within the processes of photography.
Untitled #5 (hyperreality) 2021, ceramic, plastic, wooden box, metal, terracotta, soil, plants, artificial light, dimensions; 156 x 95 x 82 cm
’…by dying, the object takes its revenge for being “discovered” and with its death defies the science that wants to grasp it’ - (Baudrillard, 1994:7)
Over-lit and raised, the discarded and fragmented objects are subjected to extreme focus. In reference to the hyperreal, the discovered objects simulate the appearance of being real. Becoming objective, the work highlights the paradox that by being observed, the objects no longer hold true. Held in a state of preservation, its reality is lost and is no longer itself but a simulacrum. Staged beneath, the plant and soil represent the underworld from where the objects came from, and to where they will return in defiance of knowledge.
Untitled #5 (hyperreality) 2021 (detail)