@emilydriverart

I’m interested in the concept of abjection when it is applied to the body of society. The mechanism of abjection is one of simultaneous reliance and denial (see; The Big Toe by George Bataille). I pick up shit that has been left behind in the overgrowth of time. Un-wanted trash talismans insidiously mapping a play of human histories. I use the term ‘Merz’ to describe the abject mass, a Dada word first used by Kurt Schwitters and inspired by the German word, kommerz (commerce); a common word used to describe the large-scale exchange of goods and services. I’m a contemporary flaneur; guided still by passing fancy but acutely seeking what’s almost un-seen; a mass of production, no longer needed: accumulating quietly under the weight of its own progress. I walk and gather by instinct. I use whatever I can find, whatever is free or cheap and accessible. What I find determines what might happen, it’s uncertain. In this body of work, I’ve extended my personal concept of Merz to include mundane items in my domestic space. The over-looked guttural objects of everyday life; tape, twigs, plastic bags, Vaseline, lint from the tumble-dryer, fruit peel, condoms and fag-butts. Items which insidiously map my own existence.