TABULA

or How much of that precious little of the past we know finds us through clay tablets?

Wild-foraged natural clay, processed clay, natural sands (beach, forest, desert), concrete, acrylic, oil, aerosol, damar resin, gamvar, uv archival spray on stretched canvas.

I made this piece while doing research centred on ancient Mesopotamian cultures—the crucible of urban civilization as we know it. These cultures left hundreds of thousands of engraved clay tablets behind in a text called cuneiform, and to this day they form one of the largest bodies of knowledge on the ancient world we have. I love filtering through translations of these tablets, they are a great source of inspiration for me. They inspired me to collect and process different samples of wild and commercial clays, and then subtly tint and engrave them all with automatic writing in several languages. It was intended as a talisman of connection to the deep past and an exercise in automatism.

48" x 60"
Private Collection.