without which there would be nothing was an installation forming one half of the exhibition Mirror Mine curated by John Edmond at Outer Space Gallery (10-24 May 2019). The exhibition looked at mining through the film iteration of Ben Russell's project Good Luck, which compares the lives of miners in a state-owned copper mine in Serbia and an illegal, small-scale gold mine in Suriname. While Russell's film explores the global impact of mineral extraction, my work looked to the local context and made visible the elemental nature of the gallery in which the exhibition was situated.
The installation involved a a series of photo collages hung above a cluster of minerals arranged low to the ground. Each mineral was propped precariously upon rusted steel legs and represented the crystalline forms of matter that make up the gallery building. For example, gypsum is what forms plasterboard, rutile generates the bright white pigment in wall paint, quartz is the key ingredient in glass and iron ore is transformed into steel. The three photo collages further explore transformation of matter by refracting, cutting and mirroring the walls and doors of the gallery space. The installation as a whole, offers new perspectives on the building surrounding the viewer and invites reflection on the extraction, processing and recycling of materials on earth.