Tree woz ere, 2023
Grafitti fragments and paper offcuts embedded in paper pulp, metal frame, microphone, amp, speaker, paper transcript
180 x 50 x 50 cm
Walking along the canals where I live, I noticed fragments of graffiti quietly sitting below the walls the pieces had previously been part of. Formed due to natural decay, they hold a stark contrast to the bulldozers ripping down other walls closer to the overground station. I began collecting these little pieces of strata, valuing them as hidden archives of multiple artworks made by many compressed into one unified form. Embedding these fragments into paper-pulped tiles, the walls have been relayed into another reality; as a container for sound, the amplified voice and as a sculptural surface travelling beyond the canal but built on the same natural resource that is water.
Combined with my own paper waste and collections, the tiles are containers of the shifting architectures around and within my own home environment. The paper pulped surfaces hold mushed up drawings, receipts, letters, bills, photographs, notes, sketches and the colours, marks and memories stationed in these documents. Creating artworks that archive live making is important to me; I feel it keeps alive the communal contributions embedded within it. As a queer artist, I find the spectrum of visibility in paper-pulp making a liberating notion that I am motivated to share with others.
These tiles now line the grid of a discarded tree planter, which I also sourced from my own locality. Spotting the councils quick insertion of blossom saplings on the street outside my home, I took in the strange peculiarity of the new pavements destruction for new nature next to empty homes been teared down to make way for new ones. Broken, bent and unwanted, many planters laid defeated on the pavement. I took this as my que to retrieve one of the structures and forge it into this layered installation. The metal frame presented here is devoid of a tree sapling but instead holds a hanging microphone, a earth (E) wire for amplification, voice and conversation.
