I am delighted that my work Exchange has been selected for the RA Summer Exhibition 2022, curated by Alison Wilding. The theme of this year’s show is ‘Climate’
Exchange Coal dust and acrylic medium on Kozo tissue, 2021, 81 x 117 cm
The coal dust that makes Exchange comes from coal that I found washed up on the Thames shore. Shipped from Newcastle, coal fuelled the homes and industries of London from the sixteenth century to the twentieth, blackening the buildings and the lungs of its inhabitants, and giving the city the nickname: ‘The Big Smoke’. Dropped into the river while being unloaded from ship to dock, coal has washed up and down with the tides, over time becoming smoothed into black pebbles which are deposited in lines on the strand. I collect these coal pebbles and crush and grind them into dust to make a black pigment. To make Exchange I sprinkled the coal dust onto a branching pattern of acrylic medium made by squashing the paint, pulling it apart and then taking a monoprint onto Kozo tissue from the pattern of ridges that emerge. Although this is a simple physical process, the branching patterns it creates recall those found in living organic systems such as branches, roots, nerves and veins.
Exchange was selected by David Mach and is hung in room V in the centre of a wall of black paintings.
