Working with Neal White and the curator Antony Hudek, existing and new work was commissioned and exhibited at Objectif. The ideas and research conducted prior to the exhibition were largely based on Antwerp’s success as a Diamond trading centre. Linking the extraction of and mining of data with that of natural resources, various works explored key themes of temporality and the monumental in the context of global capitalism.

Deep Freezer

I worked on a new commission for Objectif, in the basement space. The new work further develops my on-going interest in bitumen, and its temporal qualities. Drawing on the work I made with Neal White, A Quantity of Easing we created two bitumen forms, taking open cast diamond mines as a starting point (Antwerp being a capital of Diamonds in the world).  Situated on a plinth with an interior visible along the perimeter of the top surface, these forms collapse through holes into the bright space below. This inversion of the extraction process, sees the bitumen slowly unfold onto the negative void of the casts. From above, the forms simply dissolve into the plinth upon which they are placed. The link between oil, the basis of the bitumen, and mining or drilling of resources, waste and the void, is implicit.

The plinth itself is shown in a darkened space accessed through a Kiosk placed in the courtyard outside of the gallery. Visitors slowly lowered themselves down a ladder in to the darkness below. Facing them was the plinth, and around them the resonant audio of open source seismic data taken from a global array of sensors – developed by Anna Troisi with the Office of Experiments. Far to the left in the bottom of a lift shaft, a video plays back close ups of diamonds taken from a promotional video of a diamond retailer in a mall.

Exiting, the visitor leaves up a stairwell to an upstairs space, which is lit by orange fluorescent tubes. A text taken from Robert Smithson text on Spiral Jetty, alluding to land art and media, is the only other element in the space. There is no access to the gallery and visitors leave via the roller door half opened to the courtyard.

Going through the main entrance to the gallery upstairs, the Speedie Telstar – a work commissioned by TULCA Galway and on loan from the Museum of Computing and Communications, Galway was exhibited among works made by White that reflect on recent projects and fieldwork concerning key issues of time, with the ideas of global communications and global resource extraction. See below.

Deep Freezer central element is a custom made white plinth with floating top. Inside it contains excess materials from the two moulds used to cast the bitumen above. On top, the two bitumen casts approx 40 x 40 cm, dissolved through holes onto these internal mounds over the duration of the exhibition.
 .