A Hundred Years (Carbon and Chalk)

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A Hundred Years (Carbon and Chalk) 2008

“In new works I am determined to directly employ material transformation and systems of entropy. In a range of materials, I intend to construct a homogenized system where fantasy and reality are inverted. Cyclical chemical reactions are induced through the use of objects cast in raw carbon, or graphite, which will inevitably degrade and alter physical states. School desks and chairs made of chalk assume a relationship to the volcanic eruptions that, over time, became land in the form of limestone and island formations. The relationship refers directly to the idea that chalk and limestone share identical chemical properties and are both utensils for systems of construction.

The ideological locations for these seemingly vast interpretations are the extreme and mythical opposite geological and social entities of the sun filled tropical region, my homeland, and the distant frozen Arctic territory. This work is an extension of ideas initiated in previous works, specifically, The Distance Between What We Have and What We Want. This work functions of many wavelengths, from the purely formal, to the purely conceptual, with many alternate levels in between.”

-Tavares Strachan