there it is, the soil
There it is, the Soil is an installation of 9 photographic works installed alongside several works from earlier series, at Hestercombe House and Gardens, Somerset. The work also features a 3500 word text, presented in an A6 booklet
Inspired by the restoration of Hestercombe’s Elizabethan Water Garden, the project explores soil as a medium for growth, for burial, for excavation, as a commodity, an element of the landscape, and a means of support, literally and metaphorically. The work also touches upon bereavement and loss.
Documentary images made on location at Hestercombe are combined with studio based imagery, still lives, and fragments of wall text.
The installation also features imaginary scenarios that reference gardens in literature for example Mellors from Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
There it is, the Soil also features a photograph of the jaw bone of a badger, which I electro-plated with silver. Drawn from a larger series of objects (Marine Curiosities, 2020), jaws are a recurring motif in the accompanying text.
Extract from the accompanying text:
“The masseter muscle is used for chewing and jaw clenching. Muscle overuse from teeth grinding and jaw clenching causes the muscles to become tense, inflamed and very painful.”
Can I take out my brace?
No. Leave it in.
Glistening with saliva, the corrective device is placed on a papery napkin between her, her sister, and what is soon to be the remains of a bowl of crisps, waxy with grease, lips stinging with salt.
IF YOU’D LIKE TO RECEIVE A COPY OF THE FULL TEXT PLEASE EMAIL THROUGH THE CONTACT FORM
Photo Credit: Jon England
