Cube

White Plastercine

Exhibited at 'People/Animals' Flat Exhibition, Edinburgh, May 2008.

I wanted to one, create an object of near perfection, and second, destroy this object of near perfection. By creating this cube with my own hands I have invested an amount of care, attention and emotion into it. By building the cube and then destroying it in a manic fashion, using my fists or nails, I am demonstrating both sides of what it is to be human.

This work raises questions of ownership. If I have created this? Do I have the right to destroy it? If I promise to rebuild it, do I have the right to destroy it. These questions are further raised in relation to, not inaminate objects, but living things in another work "Death of a Plant".

Square Hair

Marker Pen, Tweezers

By Using my own body as a canvas, I am fully able to alter it without question. In this work I drew an exact 5cm by 5cm Square on my leg, then proceeded to individually pluck each hair out of that marked area. I felt there was no need to collect the hair, as the absence of hair on my leg in such a uniformed manner was more the focus of the work.

Death of a Plant

Plant, Baggy, Sheet of paper, Pen

This work consists of a plant being stripped of its leaves 10 at a time. This gradual destruction was well document. Each set of 10 leaves were collected in the baggy and tally marks were taken to determine exactly how many were removed altogether.

Once this process had finished, a book was compiled consisting of the documentation process, and the leaves, numbered and logged. This book "Death of a Plant" became the art object.

This work was made thinking as to the rights i have as a human. Do i have the right to do this to a plant because i have bought it? Does monetary ownership grant permission to this kind of destruction?

What makes this not just an act of calculated destruction, is that the plant was displayed with the book, showing that not only had I destroyed this plant, I had nursed it back to health. This renewable object led me to question works in which I use my own body as a canvas. I have the right to alter my body as I choose. In "Square Hair", I'm using another renewable material, hair.