"Remnants of an Ecology soon Past"

Completed at Pada Studios, this series aims to leave physical traces in the landscape of the vegetal life which normally rots away, leaving little trace in the archaeological record.

Throughout two months at PADA studios in Barreiro Portugal, I lived and worked in an abandoned industrial park on the banks of the Tagus river. In use for over a century, the landscape was deeply scarred, and pockmarked by the remnants of massive industry, yet abandoned for over 50 years, the polluted landscape is slowly healing itself, being reclaimed by vegetal life; rare Iberian flora and fauna, as well as invasive species.

This piece records my many walks and explorations through the park, collecting, identifying and then firing the local flora in Porcelain; a complex and unpredictable process that destroys the plant even as it preserves its 'skeleton'. Displayed in a hand-built case reminiscent of a museum display, this aping of scientific visual language invites the audience to engage with these miniature works on their own terms, and invites questions on the contemporary colonialist attitudes through which we engage with the vegetal world.