Presence/Absence 2005

Phoenix Gallery, Brighton, Sussex.

The essential idea in this installation was of transience and precariousness.

The gallery floor equates with the horizontal, whereas the walls denote the vertical in oppositions of death and life respectively. The red earth not only contrasts exterior with interior, but implies displaced location, having resonances with the Kenyan landscape. The earth is at the same time fertile and yet, seen in cavities below ground level, linked with burial. While the floor above provides a false sense of stability, exaggerated by the maze-like configuration overall. This feeling of vulnerability and fragility forms a central role. The objects found in these cavities display oppositions in haptic Presence/Absence 2005, material permanence and impermanence, amongst which ambiguity is an essential ingredient for the viewer to form their own metaphoric associations.