Jorge Otero-Pailos: The Ethics of Dust

Wonderful installation at Westminster Hall, Houses of Parliament, by artist, architect and conservationist Jorge Otero-Pailos and commissioned by Artangel.

The piece was a 50m long latex cast of the interior wall of this medieval hall embedded with hundreds of years of surface dirt and pollution. The sheet is an art work but was also used as part of the process of cleaning the wall. It is hung alongside the wall about 8 feet away from it creating a corridor. You can stand by it and directly compare the dirt which has come off with the wall behind. The work is like a big peel off face mask!

The title comes from a quote from John Ruskin. I’d like to know if there is to be any analysis of the dirt as, as the commentary pointed out, it included the dust of the Fire of London and the Blitz.

This was an fantastic piece of work but also a treat to go and see this amazing medieval space in the middle of the Houses of Parliament.

Closes on 1 September 2016.

Review
Guardian

 

 

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