Ode to something dry, 2022, AZAN, Mira-Sintra Meleças

 Builders sand, cement, cement n’ salt, gesso, suet (eaten by the dog), raw clay, found rocks, made rocks, print, moss dye (solar extraction), lucky coin, fragment of peacock ore crystal, bubblegum

During a residency at AZAN (Mira-Sintra Meleças, Portugal) I became preoccupied by a lichen growth that had dried out on the studio wall (lichen hibernates during the summer months), and the presence of a team of builders roofing the space next to the studio. It made me think about things about to get wet, the moss ready to start growing again with the rise in humidity, the open space being covered to protect against future rain. Echoing some of the gestures of lifting, throwing, setting, mixing and pouring from the builders, I started casting using industrial materials, incorporating found objects from the surrounding landscape. In the last weeks of the residency it was very hot, and the things I was making kept breaking and cracking...everything dried too quickly for me to control. Playing with this imminent change of state, the final installation suggests a stage set waiting  - or even desperate – for the rain.