Imprints of Islands Future-Past

“Is this extraordinary land rising, or is it in ruins?”

Louis-Antoine de Bougainville (19th century circumnavigator)

To seek out the form and nature of all possible islands (those long since dispersed, and those yet to emerge), the artists began by excavating. This process of cutting, digging, clearing and unearthing of a surface - looking to each other for confirmation of each island’s true shape and appearance - revealed them as their fully formed selves.

From these excavations, impressions were made of each new islanded surface - generating markings and outlines that have become the fossils of these projected land masses.

A fossil, as a memory of the body from which it originates, may be imprinted onto variants of a material whose own shape and tone can shift - creating a relationship between the blind embossed form and the impacted surface. The impressions are shown as a displayed collection whose number and quantity are (will be) adjusted to the particularities of the exhibition space.