Construction site 2020 Shutter board, copper, soil, rust, calcrete, cement, glue, epiphyte 600mm x 420mm x 16mm
Allowing construction materials to have a free agency in my previous work, gave rise to a question about my human (artistic) agency. Could I make a landscape? Would my imposition of an intention tie down the materials too much?
My first intentional act was to choose a piece of shutter board from the actual construction site that had a ‘landscape’ format. Then - the second intentional act - was to stretch a copper wire across the board in the traditional ‘third’ horizontal position and nail this down. A group of copper objects was hammered in - again using a traditional landscape ‘rule of thirds’ to establish the landscape identity before I handed over to the materials. Glue and calcrete picked up the colour of the acid-washed copper and moved it around. The grouping of the copper objects began to read like the main house in the distance. Later - more copper objects were added to emphasize this.