My proposal was to build a work that draws upon the metaphors of erosion, dissolving, transfer and, in essence, change. These are common phenomena of emagration/immagration. People hold onto parts of their culture of origin and lose others.
I envisioned a solid changing states over time. Central to the idea is the transition of matter from state to state. Set in the context of the Ah, Motherland! residency, this action of state changing begins to imply the broader issues of changing landscapes, identities, perceptions.
I imagined a bound granulate solid— salt, sugar, or pigment—being slowly dissolved by a liquid. Salt proved to be the most suitable for the metaphor because of its universal qualities. It is a common denominator. Out of fine table salt I made solid slabs. I then experimented with different methods of bringing the salt into contact with a liquid: dripping, submerging, and adding pigment.
I decided to build a platform out of multiple slabs of salt. A block of colored ice will rest atop this structure and by simple physical change, the ice will melt and begin to dissolve the salt, carving it into a sort of landscape. Does change have to be quick, dramatic, immediate?
