Serena Korda - Ask The Dust Most artists use art as an exploration of issues and events effecting their generation, whilst a lot of your art seems to narrate and refer to different points in history, why is this? I believe that looking back at the past (especially the overlooked and more forgotten elements of our history) provides us with a new way of looking at what is happening in our lives now. I like to use my work as a way of making audiences reconsider their familiar, in the case of Laid to Rest, two major elements of our lives are being reconsidered dust and bricks. Discovering the importance dirt has played in building the foundations of London and our civilisation, has certainly provided me with a new way of looking at the city and the world around me. The past is a vehicle for me to consider my present. You say on your website that you are interested in highlighting the forgotten bits of history, how did you find yourself engaged in these aspects of our abandoned history? Was it one discovery that prompted further reading/exploration? This focus has certainly developed out of an interest in recording and documenting the personal histories of strangers in a project I undertook in 2004 entitled ‘Old Men’s Flesh”. Part of the project involved documenting and collecting tattoos from old men in pubs and working men’s clubs. The tattoo’s acted as portal’s in to the lives of the men I encountered and this really set a theme in my work for focusing on the more overlooked and forgotten elements within our culture. History, for me, is a form of storytelling: I am particularly interested in female histories and my work more recently focused on readdressing the balance in the representation of female characters often left out of the historical canon. Are there environmental or ecological motives behind this project, Laid to Rest, or is it simply an exploration of the Victorian commercialism of waste? This project is much more concerned with the socio-political aspects of dirt and dust rather than the environmental concerns surrounding the subject. The project was very much inspired by the idea of people finding their fortune in the dust heap of Gray’s Inn Rd. I became fascinated with the commerce and industry that is embodied in waste and the fact that the waste we produce forms the basis of our civilisation and can be transformed in to ‘gold’. The dust heaps history illustrates this clearly as it was allegedly sold to Russia (to form part of St.Petersburg’s foundations) for the grand sum of £20,000. I am excited by the idea that the thing we most want to ignore in our lives, dirt, has this alchemical quality of transforming itself into a fortune. This alchemy is embodied in “Laid to Rest” in the transformation of the almost invisible, dust, in to the palpable, brick. The project celebrates the blocks of earth around us that are the foundations of our civilisation and form the basis of how our city operates and functions. Last year you envisioned a project where you would dig a hole. You said that after experimenting with this idea you realized that by digging a hole you would also, unavoidably, create a mountain (of earth). Do you think that the same theme exists within Laid To Rest, since we can never truly eradicate the dirt and dust that we produce, all we can do is make it into something else? Yes definitely, my work often focuses on man’s attempt to conquer nature, there is a universal struggle going on here that I find fascinating and it often appears in my work creating absurd and impossible scenario’s. I plan to dig a hole as part of Laid to Rest: this will be the burial ground for the bricks once they have been exhibited at the Wellcome Collection. The hole in Laid to Rest will have a purpose (unlike the previous hole I dug which was more concerned with acts of futility) as the burial will elevate the stack of bricks into a folk object. What do you hope people will take away from the project, both those contributing and those simply viewing the installation? I hope participants and gallery goers will experience a spectacle of the everyday, ritualising the overlooked and forgotten. When collecting dust I have experienced participants beginning to reconsider their surroundings and the way they think about the dust that is collecting around them. Collecting other peoples dust certainly makes me think about my own mortality and the fact that we produce dust and will ultimately return to being dust. One participant, who works with dirt in her job, spoke of how the project had created a new perception filter on the way she looked at dust. The installation and series of performances that will ensue around the stack of bricks certainly aims to elevate the importance of these bricks into a folk object, ritualising them and highlighting the alchemy that exists in our everyday lives. It is intended for the piece to be ceremoniously returned to the ground at the end of the exhibition. Won’t it be hard to see a piece that you have worked on for so long, simply disappearing? No, this is just another form of alchemy that is inherent to the project, the work which has transformed the invisible to the visible, will become invisible once again. There is a romance to the art of destruction, however the burial is not a destructive act but one of posterity, creating a modern day folk object that will be rediscovered in the future. There is also an absurdist quality to the act which certainly appeals to me, I see the stack once buried as an inverted monument. Over the last few years I have created a series of objects in my work that are about commemoration in some way or another and the burial of a piece could be seen as the ultimate commemoration of an artwork or an object. Donating dust couldn't be easier. Simply request an envelope, either via phone 0207 377 9677, by email, donateyourdust@upprojects.com or in person at the Wellcome Collection. Fill the envelope with dust, and return it either in the post or in person. You can collect your dust anywhere, from the tops of your bookshelves to the bottoms of your skirting boards, there is no limit to the amount of dust you can contribute, and even the smallest of donations are accepted. To find out more please visit the Wellcome Collection website. Helen Wilson Posted 21st November, 2010. |
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