Free Radical 2025
Mixed Media, 246 x 280cm
Free Radical is about the marks we make and the traces we leave behind. It began with an interrogation of a studio wall, drilling into it to explore its substance. Then a forensic approach to its surface, taking rubbings and photographs of impressions left by others, positioning these back on the wall to layer with imagery of my own.
The intention was to bring past and present together. I played with scale, shadow and accident, working directly onto the wall, somewhere between finding and making. Hundreds of decisions were made about what to show and what to hide, using blush colours and concealer to allude to exposure and cover. Durer’s fig leaves make an appearance. Artist Andrea Buttner suggests shame is involved in making any art. Her book Shame (2021) references Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick who identifies shame as a ‘free radical’, something to be worked with for the purpose of transformation.
The video below, edited by Levan Tozashvili, was shot part way through the work. Below that, still images show the full arc of the project. A stop motion at the bottom of the page shows a final reversal of process, returning the wall to neutral before handing it on to another.
Edited by Levan Tozashvili
