This unique drawing is from a body of work consisting of 96 pieces.
The dimensions of the entire installation adapt to the exhibition space. Each individual drawing is 38x28cm (15x11in) on 300g watercolor paper. The drawings were created using Delhi air pollution. The ink is harvested from air and also diesel fumes. The drawings smell of exhaust and pollution. They have a living and dark presence. These are particles that used to be living organisms, plankton, trees and animals that eventually became mineral oil, brought to the surface and in some way refined to power machines wich carried goods over distances to serve humans. Once the energy had been extracted, much of the material usually lands in the atmosphere and changes the world as we know it.
Global warming and climate change are caused by the same particles as the ones used for these drawings.
By creating drawings with these particles I am setting reminders of the passage of everything through everything. The symbolism points to a growing and reoccuring moment or series of moments. The material lives that very reentry, over millions of years. But there is urgency now. There is change, markings, thoughts, NOW.
The paper on which the drawings are placed has its own story, it also used to be living organisms, and the texture of the paper allows us to be reminded of streets and skin and bark.
Some of the circles are saturated and dark, others barely existing ghosts. A range of drawings are circles buried under other markings.
I will continue this series with pollution from other cities around the world and with other substances that would otherwise go unnoticed.
Ideally the substance would become more and more difficult to obtain, as we move to a more sustainable way of energy extraction.
