Time Work 1. explores the sensation of time and history that's physically trapped in the architecture of everyday places. Using paintings as metaphorical (and physical) 'bricks' - this history trapping expresses a kind of aura or ghost of the time these objects come from and have passed through. This work reaches into a dialogue about memory, time and the essence of architecture.
Each piece in this series operates as a sort of time capsule. The paintings are embedded with newspaper births, deaths and marriages, headlines and news of the day. This anchors them in history, while simultaneously trapping history within them. Layered with paint, cement and plaster, the works become architectural analogues – and painted with their grey brick motif they evoke the spirit of construction materials. Like classical Greek and Roman architecture, each work's shape conforms to the golden mean. Through this, the work acts like a conduit between now, and the architectural heritage of an ancient past. It also serves to bridge between the infinite world of maths and pure ideas and the very physical, finite and ever-ageing world tangible objects – and so draws a connection between the infinite and finite. This connection speaks to the fundaments of human experience, through our physical relationship to the world and our ideas about that world.
Since completing the initial collage and paint work, the work has been left to mature – gather history. The 36 piece suite has been stored, (literally) collecting dust. The stack has been moved and rotated periodically, so like their architectural inspiration, these objects have suffered wear. Like scuffed floors or the chipped paint on the door frames of an old home, they've been patched and repainted, damaged and repaired.
