Dark Matter: Cities - London (detail)

Dark Matter: Cities – London and Dark Matter: Cities – Detroit refer to two iconic cities and places of importance to me. I was born and grew up in the Detroit area and continue to observe its industrial decline and struggle for rebirth. Detroit serves as a metaphor for the decline of western industrial power. Much of my adult life has been spent living and working in Southeast England where London serves as the capital of what was once a great imperial power now, inevitably in decline. London serves as a metaphor for that empire but is not in decline as a city. The pieces are not decaying but rather are in a state of transformation and change and like all things, are tending toward entropy.

The ‘Dark Matter’ sculptures and drawings refer to the vast majority of matter and energy in the universe that exists but cannot be seen.  The work also reflects my interest in the experience of place and the ability of art to enable access to abstract, remote and invisible spaces including the space of the human unconscious.

In the ‘Dark Matter’ series I exploit the possibilities of bitumen to explore these interests.  The sculptures are composed of bitumen, one of the oldest materials used in building.  Bitumen is a petroleum derivative and fluid material that can feel solid at room temperature, but moves over time. 

Using this material allows me to explore work that like nature changes over time and moves from form to formlessness.  Like most natural processes the movement is irreversible; it only proceeds in one direction.  In the future each sculpture will exist only as a pool of pitch containing itself and other things entrapped in it.

The black structures and their descent into disorder evoke ideas of entropy, chaos and loss.  Giving tangible form to such unconscious and ineffable spaces creates new challenges that continue to hold my interest.