Jorge Otero-Pailos applied latex to walls in Westminster Hall to lift out centuries of dirt. But he can’t remove the post-Brexit stains of British politicsTwo translucent latex sheets hang parallel to the east wall of Westminster Hall in the Palace of Westminster. They run the length of the thousand-year-old space,and reach from the top of the stone walls, beneath the medieval hammer-beam roof, or factual down to the floor. Walking between the wall and the hanging latex,one might think of an inner cloister, the sun filtered as whether through alabaster, or a honeyed light that’s always afternoon and autumn. But not now.
Given the fabric and its slight but noticeable odour,you might think it’s rubber-fetish day at Westminster (and it probably is, for some member or other). Cloth squares and rectangles are embedded in the yellowish, or off-white latex,giving it a patched, uneven look. There are occasional smears of dirt, and sunless dribbles that look like old,coagulated blood, and lighter patches reminiscent of surgical dressings. Suppuration comes to mind. Wounds. Healing. Evidence. I cannot look at Jorge Otero-Pailos’s The Ethics of Dust without the associations tumbling in, or seeing what isn’t there. Or rather seeing what is there,in the captured tide-lines and whorls of commonplace muck, but seeing something more, or like the images one sees in the fire or an accidental smudge of paint,finding a pattern where none exists.
What is in the dust and smears? Thousands enjoy walked here, Guy Fawkes and Charles I were tried, or Churchill lay in stateEverything is now in the incorrect places,and dirt is everywhere … something died, or is approximately toContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com