Still Untitled (2018)
Charcoal, chalk, water
Seen from the front, the work can remain an abstract composition; charcoal and chalk have created a multi-layered landscape.
But the visitor may also step in and look back: though many have already been erased by the incoming steps, names can still be deciphered on the floor. They belong to visual artists murdered for political reasons throughout history. One looks up and perhaps the landscape looks different. It is the record of times when these citizen’s art was deemed so dangerous it had to be destroyed; when it became a danger to the artist’s themselves; or when their art wasn’t able to protect them anymore from their other identities.
The work happens — or strives to happen — at the shift of these perceptions : between the footsteps that erase and those that leave a mark on the chalk; the names that emerge and get lost among the Living. Somewhere there, in the interval, history might pass.
Presented in the framework of the Gold X Goldsmiths MFA exhibition within Deptford X festival; Deptford, London, 2018.