I have been travelling a lot lately; but unfortunately London is not on my route this year. If it were, I would definitively have visited Jorge Otero-Pailos’ installation The Ethics of Dust, in Westminster Hall.
The Ethics of Dust at Westminster Hall (2016), Jorge Otero-Pailos
The Ethics of Dust consists of two 25 x 6 metre large sheets of translucent latex that hang like abstract tapestries from the roof. They are in fact casts of the Hall’s east wall, produced by a cleaning process that lay latex onto the stained limestone, which then gradually absorbs the soot and dust of centuries.
It’s strange how such a simple work, a mould of a wall, can capture and create a multitude of meanings. And it is also strange to see how dust and pollution can be transformed into the most beautiful work of art.
Here is Otero-Pailos on creating the work:
Yes! I would love to be there too!
While watching the film about it this popped into my head:
We are a funny animal
We nests of our own losses
and hatch pliant, newborn hope
while writing its demise.
Should be: we make nests…