Abstract

The work ‘Surfeit 621’ is an installation work constructed in response to an invitation to exhibit in Galway together with Clare Twomey and Claire Curneen through a Crafts Council Ireland supported exhibition - ‘3x2: Exhibition of Contemporary Clay’. The work is a development of investigation into ceramic and the digital interface, and as such, consists of an installation of multiple objects juxtaposed with projected video film. The work is both political and conceptual and links to continued research that advocates a conceptual capacity for work made from clay. This work is influenced by and forms a commentary on the political location that clay has assumed in the current economic crisis. This work draws on the excesses of manufacture and fabrication and in particular the construction of 621 housing estates containing 300,000 unoccupied new homes in Ireland, now termed ‘Ghost Estates’. Clay, a naturally formed material is rendered toxic in the video element of this work, this makes direct reference to the term ‘toxic debt’, and is expressed by the artist through the wearing of industrial protection suit, gloves and mask.