Untitled (I measure therefore I am)

I made a new piece of work for a group show with the title Experimenting with Clouds, currently at RUA RED gallery at the South Dublin Arts Centre.

Here's the piece and below are a few shots showing how I made it. I plan to make other versions (using other texts including the Lacanian-inspired  'I am measured therefore I am'). For the first one, I used a phrase that I wove into several projects I created a decade ago including my book Audit (2002), which shows the results of conducting an audit asking how much I was worth, and the LIX Index (2002-3 and remade in a new version for the Dublin show and available at lixindex.org.uk).

The piece is formed of 20 letters about 12 cm high which I created by casting polyester resin. Inside the resin are keys from broken keyboards, calculators, phones and TV remote controls.

View of the piece installed (with a line on the wall, that was later removed)

Close up of two letters

Installation shot from the opening night at RUARED in Dublin

My first sketch - the black letters are two of the cake moulds I bought

Some of the silicone cake moulds I used to cast the keys in polyester resin

My small child helping liberate the keys from old keyboards I collected

The keys from the old keyboards needed washing

Acknowledgements


Thanks to Kirsten Downie for helping me cast the resin. Thanks also to these organisations who supplied me with broken keyboards to ransack for keys: Archway Systems and KF Imaging. I disposed of the remains responsibly via my local recycling centre.