DARK MATTERS, 2012 Artist's statement
‘Dark Matters’ moves from small meaningless scraps of thrown-away paperwork to the unfathomable massiveness of the universe. From tiny particles of dust resting on a surface to our magnificent blistering sun, along the way thinking of the immense complexity and elegant simplicity that seem to govern life.
‘Dark Matters’ is really a collision of two separate projects. I was working with a (mainly unremarkable) collection of paperwork thrown out by a social club (I salvaged it at the end of a previous project) when I was diagnosed with cancer. Again. This work was partly made during a 4-week long course of daily radiotherapy treatment at St Bartholomew’s hospital during the summer of 2012. Using deliberate digital manipulation on some image files and physical interventions to prints I have purposefully altered the works. Lines between health and ill health and the problem of mapping the inside to the outside of the body are considered and parallels drawn to the idea of mapping life beyond our planet.