distinction between felt flesh, (site-specific installation, performance & soundscape) - 2022

‘distinction between felt flesh’ is a durational performance, exhibition and site of research concentrating on the engagement between my body and clay, which took place at San Mei gallery. The work examined the processes of extraction that bodies of colour and natural resources both experience in ‘colonial nature environments’. Over the course of the six-week exhibition, I processed, cleaned and filtered raw clay making site-specific sculptures.

I placed raw clay into buckets of water and using my hands mixed these two materials to create clay slip which I then poured into pillowcases which hung from the ceiling, slowly expelling excess water back into the buckets. Once the clay became a malleable consistency, I then created sculptures, outlining impressions of my body formed by pressing myself onto beds of clay, which left indentations and momentary residues of these interactions. As the exhibition evolved, sculptures were added to and removed from the space, the removed sculptures left outlined residues of their once presence, whilst the sculptures which remained weathered, dried, cracked, expanded and contracted, requiring ongoing gestures of care and repair.