Non object sculpture. click for gallery
Ash steps references connections between two states and presents an illusion of
choice, to ascend or descend. The fragility and precariousness of Ash Steps is not at
first apparent, in both appearance and form it appears visually akin to concrete.
However on further inspection, burnt paper visible, this essentially ephemeral material
is presented as a solid yet with portent to degrade, disintegrate, ruin.
Ash steps is constructed from paper ash. The processes of feeding the paper into the fire, stoking, cooling, panning and sifting, determine the colour and grain of the ash. The reduction of mass from paper to ash is significant.
Material is seen disappearing into the night sky, or blowing away when cooling the
next day. The process creates material that
disappears as it is touched and worked.
Ash Steps was presented in response to the context and architectural features of the Bank Gallery and created onsite for the exhibition, Preparing the Site, curated by Emma Rae Warburton and Anna Viani. The exhibition explored how material processes and methods of display altered the physical and metaphorical function of things and the sites that they occupy.
