WATERCOLOUR (2017–2018)
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REALISED BETWEEN 2017–2018 ACROSS: SAUDI ARABIA, THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION, TURKEY, THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA, NORWAY, AND THE UK, WATERCOLOUR IS AN INTERNATIONAL (E)MAIL ART PROJECT IN WHICH FIVE PIECES OF WHITE A4 PAPER WERE PLACED ON FIVE COLOURED SEAS AROUND THE WORLD: THE RED SEA, WHITE SEA, BLACK SEA, YELLOW SEA, AND GREEN(LAND) SEA, BY PARTICIPATING ARTISTS AND SCIENTISTS TO CREATE FIVE CONCEPTUAL 'WATERCOLOUR'. INVITED TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE PROJECT THROUGH EMAIL, PARTICIPANTS PERFORMED THE ACTION OF PLACING THEIR PAPER SUBSTRATE AGAINST THE SURFACE OF THEIR NEAREST 'COLOURED' WATER MASS. ONCE THE PAPER HAD DRIED, EACH PARTICIPANT SENT THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO THE UK, USING THEIR CLOSEST POSTAL SERVICE. ON THEIR ARRIVAL INTO THE UK, EACH SUBSTRATE WAS CHEMICALLY ANALYSED FOR (A)BIOTIC TRACE ELEMENTS USING AN X-RAY FLUORESCENCE SPECTROMETER (XRF) (A NON-DESTRUCTIVE TEST THAT QUANTIFIABLY DETERMINES MATERIAL COMPOSITION). OVER THE DURATION OF THE PROJECT CONTRIBUTIONS WERE RECEIVED FROM: DR RAMONA MARASCO AT THE KING ABDULLAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, SAUDI ARABIA; PROFESSOR ALEXANDER TZETLIN, DR ANNA ZHADAN, NICKOLAY USOV, AND KONSTANTIN BIYAGOV AT THE WHITE SEA BIOLOGICAL STATION, THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION; PROFESSOR ALI MUZAFFER FEYZIOGLU AT KARADENIZ TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY, TURKEY; NICK HOBBS, AN ARTIST BASED IN ISTANBUL, TURKEY; YUJIN JU, AN ARTIST BASED IN SEOUL, THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA; AND PROFESSOR LENA HÅKANSSON AT THE UNIVERSITY CENTRE IN SVALBARD, NORWAY. WITH THANKS TO PARTICIPATORY COURIERS: DHL, THE RUSSIAN POST (Почта России), TURKISH POST (PTT), EMS, POSTEN NORGE, AND THE ROYAL MAIL; AND PARTICIPATORY SCIENTISTS: SENIOR LABORATORY TECHNICIAN ROBERT ASHURST FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD (UK) (XRF); PROFESSOR CLARE WOULDS AND DR KAREN BACON FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS (UK), WHO ANALYSED THE SAMPLES USING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY AND THROUGH AN OPTICAL MICROSCOPE.
// WATERCOLOUR WRITTEN SCORE // WATERCOLOUR DIAGRAMMATIC SCORE // WATERCOLOUR INSTRUCTIONS // exhibition & publication Watercolour was exhibited at Bloc Projects, Sheffield, in 2018. THE xrf data also takes the form of a postal publication which can be sent to you in the mail. THIS EDITION COMPRISES: the xrf data from the paper samples, a photograph, an accompanying envelope and a hand-written note by the artist. in this publication, the XRF analysis data enumerates the composite elements of the paper’s materiality as inseparable from matter found on the substrates through their permeation, transportation, and analysis. Here, I refer to the placement of the substrates on each ‘coloured’ body of water; an action which held onto algae, mineral sediments, and minute pieces of driftwood; but also to the envelope’s postage, shipping, and HUMAN-HANDING; AN APPROACH WHICH ALLOWED HUMAN PATHOGENS, SKIN CELLS, AND ‘AIR MILES’ TO IMPERCEPTIBLY ACCUMULATE ON THEIR SURFACE. The XRF analysis was also subject to external factors, including temperature, machinic calibrations, and the sway of human observation. This publication presents the xrf data and is a (de-) and (re-) constructive meditation on the composition of objects, and their conditionality. That is, they function in a similar way to Craig Dworkin’s series of ‘fact-poems’ as seen in Twelve Erroneous Displacements and a Fact (2016), and Vilém Flusser’s premise of ‘in-formation’ as outlined in ‘Form and Material’ (2012). |
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