When most people look at trees, they think that trees are somehow made from the soil they stand on. But trees are not made from soil. They are made from the breath or living creatures, including us. And they are made from sunshine. They need the breath to extract the carbon from carbon dioxide. And they need the sun’s energy to perform photosynthesis.
So when you look at a tree that is a 100 years old, then it becomes clear that inside of the very centre of the trunk of that tree is a core that contains the sunshine from 100 years ago and also the breath of our ancestors who lived near the tree one hundred years ago. It is more dramatic with older trees.
When you set fire to a log of wood from an old tree, you are literally releasing the energy of the sun that shone on that tree hundreds of years ago. And you are also releasing the breath of the ancestors.
When you are riding in a vehicle with a combustion engine, you are also doing something similar. Except the energy of the sun was stored earlier. And the carbon from the breath of the environment too. It was stored about 300 Million Years ago.
And so the particles of the ink from which I made these drawings here in front of you are 300 Million Years old. Because they are made from the pollution that came from diesel trucks in Delhi. And the ink was mixed with some Japanese Sumi ink, that is also made from burning wood and bones. And the paper on which this drawing was drawn is also plant based.
And so everything you see right here in front of you is made of the energy of the sun, and the breath of our “ancestors”, who had just arrived on land. Some of them from 300 Million years ago.
This work consists of 96 drawings and the dimensions of the entire installation adapt to the exhibition space. Each individual drawing is 28x38cm. The drawings were created using Delhi air pollution.
The ink was harvested from the air and also diesel fumes. The drawings used to smell of exhaust and pollution. They have a living and dark presence. These are particles that used to be living organisms, plankton, trees that eventually became mineral oil, brought to the surface and in some way refined to power machines which carried goods over distances to serve humans. Once the energy had been extracted, much of the material usually lands in the atmosphere and changes the world as we know it.
Global warming and climate change are caused by the same particles as the ones used for these drawings.
By creating drawings with these particles I am setting reminders of the passage of everything through everything. The symbolism points to a growing and reoccurring moment or series of moments. The material lives that very reentry, over millions of years. But there is urgency now.
The paper on which the drawings are placed has its own story, it also used to be trees, it also used to be living things, and the texture of the paper allows us to be reminded of streets and skin and bark.
Some of the circles are saturated and dark, others barely existing ghosts. A range of drawings are circles buried under other markings.
London, 2020. Edited and expanded in Lisbon, 2025
Some of the individual drawings are availabe for sale, here
Click here and enter “private” as username and password to see all drawings
Previous Project
Next Project