Interstice (Scantily Clad)

Interstice (Scantily Clad)

Ceramic and steel, 2018

The piece is a representation of a tower block in Sunderland derived from a distorted digital image occupying a space between two Google Street View images. The piece presents a simulated three-dimensional reality while retaining its two-dimensionality. In exhibition this piece sits awkwardly in real space for scrutiny, as an approximated and deficient architectural statement. 

This large-scale work was constructed over several months in four slab sections (total slab dimension is approx. H:120cm x 90cm). Brick clay local to North-East of England is used as the foundation of the piece, followed by veneers of black and white clay. The imagery is hand carved forming the relief surface.

The use of bare ceramic material is important as it tends towards degradation, while it retains evidence of the hand and labour of construction. The work was built in the months following the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the event caused by a defective exercise in aesthetics.

Technology such as Google Street View embellishes our understanding of real physical spaces. Interstice (Scantily Clad) draws attention to the separation this leads to, away from the real as something tangible, and may embody this moment in time when a deficiency in digital representation remains evident, where the project to imitate reality comprehensively is incomplete.