When we are gone, you will shortly follow // When you are gone, we will still be here
2019
Mixed media installation: 5m x 1.5m fluorescent silkscreen print onto fabric, wicker sculpture, woodchip,
As part of the Ruskin BFA Degree Show 2019
The cave is deep and dark. It calls to you. It has something to say. A message, ancient yet new.
A web has been spun, ensaring its visitors. Something has been alive here, living here. Is it human? Is it animal? Is it still here? Or will it be returning soon? Let’s not wait to find out.
This is a place you do not belong,
Yet the writings on the walls were meant for you
Perhaps they already knew you would be presumptious enough to enter
So concerned you are with your comings-and-goings
Obsessed with self-obsessions
As your air heats up thick with smoke, swollen waters
Bury and bury and bury your poisons deep into the underground
Until cracks form and the earth swallows you up
Swallows you whole
And spits out your bones
The layout of the installation invites the viewer into the space, to play along in the world it has constructed. The installation features a five-metre wide silkscreen printed textile, hung from the wall like a tapestry or cave painting.
Within the element of play, the installation is lit by blacklight torches handed out to the audience. It is immersive, with surround sound audio, and woodchip underfoot. The audience lights up a portion of the tapestry at a time, and it fluoresces under the blacklight.
There is an uneasiness to the installation. The confrontational texts, the insectoid figures, the all-consuming darkness, the uncertain presence that something (or someone?) is in the room with you.
Along the corner of the wall is a wicker-woven nest, where a performer may reside. Painted also with fluorescent ink, but hidden under remnants of tapestry cloth, this human presence is only detectable under blacklight. Sometimes the performer has gone, but their presence remains. They may return again soon. It is unsure if they are already there.