Why Trace2018?

With just four weeks to go before opening (PANIC!), I realise that I haven’t explained why the exhibition is titled Trace2018. There are a number of reasons why this is appropriate for my work, but the title also has to fit that of my collaborator, Sarah, whose work “examines the integrity of the information trail, focusing on small ruptures in electronic digital transmission that cause miscommunication”. We batted ideas between us before agreeing on the name.

.I’m greatly interested in the marks that people leave behind – not the intended ones but those made inadvertently, accidentally or consequently. A while ago I made some abstract paintings based on the scuff marks that accrue on the kick-plates protecting the bottoms of doors (municipal buildings are good sources). They're signs or indications that someone has been at a place or passed through, primary source material to interrogate and develop. This vestige or suggestion of presence is one key aspect of the body of work going into the Pie Factory show. A 'found' glove has to be 'lost' to someone; what narrative was this garment an infinitesimal part of? The object is also itself mark-making, laying there disrupting and visually changing its environment, a trace indicator of human existence.

Trace also means 'to find', which is apt, and it implies investigation not just happenchance. These works are backed-up by a great deal of research around the social and symbolic heritage of these garments, the product of which being an historical narrative or trace of the past. Trace2018 works within a contemporary context, the perspective is current so, whilst I reference the historical, this is a view from 2018 and change is all around us.

This all makes sense to me! Hope it will to you too in June.