Ubik

2022 | Painted salvaged wood and found objects, wall piece
150 cm x 150 cm x 15 cm

This piece gradually shifts in tone from white through grey into black.  Close knit and delicate, it houses small artefacts of memory. These found objects and photographs, often have magnifying glasses in front of them which distort in the same way that time distorts our memories, disorienting and reorienting the viewer as they move around the piece. 

It’s a grid like mesh, interconnected and interrelated creating wooden networks that viewed from a distance look like maps or aerial views of the city.  It also suggests the skeleton of the city, bringing to mind the ruins of Dresden and Hiroshima.  But its not only about tracing the past life of the city, it also suggests the networks and systems around us today: the patterns of settlement and migration, the frameworks that brings us food, water and heating,  The viewer is drawn to consider things we take for granted, doors, windows, walls and corners and how they are constructed.  I use the methods and tools that carpenters would use when erecting a building.  The  piece is constructed using halving joints – the most used assembly joint in joinery and carpentry.