Topographies (2020)

Virtual collaboration with Lithuanian artist Uršulė Baužaitė.

3D printed Bone china objects, video

In this work two artists create together. Being distant but at the same time being close in their ideas, in wishing to talk about how and why people are hurting their home planet.

We are reflecting on them through ceramic objects which are based on scans of plastics and anthracite forms, also inspired by the shapes of coal hills and landfill forms. The imagery shows both mines and landfills, and the cycle of taking from and putting in the earth. The path of creating this work is to look deeper at wounds in the earth, that we as a consuming human are creating. Is it possible that these acts through their archetype, reveal the deep human desire to create like Nature itself?

The act of creation which is unconscious finds a way through somethings we do not even call creativity-making huge landfill hills we build our own mountains, which can become future archaeology treasures at the same time witnessing our consumerism when the plastic as package is such a short term while lying in a landfill it becomes long lasting. From the aerial view of coal mines of the google images, the mines look like scars, oddly beautiful but devastating.

We reflect on the folly of immortality, and how man has strived to make his life better/longer not considering how these actions can affect our own life and what is left behind. Plastics and coal both were attempts to make human life better; coal was dug from the earth, plastic thrown into is, in these opposite actions making the same irreparable harm. The longing for mortality now challenges our mortality.