Solid State

This is the final work made during my residency at Watts Gallery, responding to an exhibition there which focussed on the poet Christina Rossetti. The title Solid State refers to finished work, and the process of arresting fluid ideas and fixing them in position so that they can move forward in time. This piece has two parts. The sculptural half of the work embodies a completed verse, multi-layered, fixed and flowing through a pellucid block. To read the text sequentially, as intended by the writer, the work must be viewed from the front. From this angle the profile of Christina’s head is clearly visible, indeed her profile is only made whole by seeing the complete verse. A representation of the poets drive to become herself through writing, and to maintain a clarity of self by creating flowing and precise poetry A triumphant moment when she had ‘done it’. The other half of this piece is in video form and was made at the same time. It’s concerned with the materialisation of words and the effort to sequence them. The struggle to organise and construct meaning and give rise to more than a sum of parts. The verse reads - "We must not look at Goblin Men, we must not buy their fruits: Who knows upon what soil they fed their hungry thirsty roots? I think these words are particularly apposite at a time when it is so important to consider the provenance of the things we choose to buy. This work is made from layers of cut and polished Perspex