Untitled 2018

This work is a site-specific installation made for The Tapestry, Kempston Street, Liverpool for Thresholds exhibition. Medium: Coir mats, spray paint. Size: 60 x 40 cms. Two door mats, placed at either side of the doorway, mark the entrance and exit as well as recording comings and goings through the dust and dirt that accumulates in the fibres. Referencing not only the threshold, the symbols on the mats relate to the history of the building as a former tannery and also to the provenance of the mats. Made in India, the symbolic depiction of the cow on the entrance mat refers to its veneration in India whilst coir itself undergoes a series of processes not too dissimilar to that of a cow hide. The exit mat with its universal symbol for cowhide relates to the end product of the tannery. Shown in white, or colourless, it represents purity and peace, here as death. The unmonumental nature of the artworks actively pronounces against the monumentalism of Liverpool as a city with its statues and grand buildings built on the proceeds of slavery.