TECHNOFOSSILS 2.1-2.4

or Even the most adamant will crumble like Ozymandias, a bleeding colossus laid rusting, boundless and bare.

Made from hand-cultivated rusts grown from 314 stainless steel and unalloyed iron, concrete, plaster, drywall compound, resin, acrylic, oil, aerosol, pigment, uv archival spray on wood panel.

My ongoing series of Technofossils proposes speculative ruins of contemporary digital technologies. I wanted to explore oxidation and corrosion in this series, and so began with a highly rust-resistant type of stainless steel. Over months, I applied seawater and thermal stress dozens of times a day; acid-bathed the samples and even subjected them to peroxide reactions in an effort to tease out different colours of rust slowly. My experimentation gave rise to many different hues and textures, which were augmented by the use of unalloyed iron to create spectacular, full-force reds. These many shades of rust were then turned into oil paint. With an understructure inspired by microchip architecture and heavily decayed, they become speculative reminders of technological mortality. Iron and steel, once symbols of industrial expansion, become a material record of entropy, positioning the present as a future ruin and inviting us to contemplate our place in the depth of time.

4 x 2'x2'
Available.