Presence / Absence II 2009
Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall
This is the second construction of an installation called ‘Presence/Absence’ specifically commissioned for the Phoenix Gallery, Brighton, the intentions remain the same in the work, but here adapted to this gallery space and context of the poem by T.S. Eliot, ‘The Waste Land’.
Extract:
‘What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.’
I feel an affinity with these sentiments, in keeping with the existential idea of human existence which l have hinted at in the work through the negative traces or impressions in the leaden clay artifacts in the floor cavities. The red earth, in contrast, is here fertile although made redundant within the gallery space as it sprouts green life. These elements contribute to a paradoxical tension between the ephemeral and the physical, hope and fear, offering a sense of uncertainty and unease.
Supported by Newlyn Gallery and University of Falmouth, Cornwall
Thanks: Ruth Gooding (Curator), Harry Lobnitz and David Maslen