Crabwalk

2004

This installation was the first in the ’walkway’ series. It was performed in situ in the gallery over a period of two weeks. I discovered that by rolling and pummelling wet clay using my body: hands, feet and elbows, the resulting imprints were reminiscent of patterns found on wet sand on the seashore at low tide formed by the continual pounding movement of the sea.

The idea came from reading about a beach in the Northwest of England where erosion of the sea exposes pre-historic footprints in the compacted sand, for example children running with a dog, a mother walking with an infant, deer tracks. The prints are revealed for a moment then washed away.

I like the idea that the traces we make extend beyond our existent selves yet are fragile. In this work I exploit the potential of the human mark to explore the scale of time and the nature of mortality.