Greater and Lesser Secrets
Splitting in half a volcanic rock from the south shore of Iceland, its core shot through with olivine crystals, the two halves were recast in glass in Scotland, mirroring the origin stone's formation through intense heat and pressure. The glass forms display a rift between the moulded, trained and contained topside and the self-formed underside, dictated by the molten dynamics of the glass in the kiln.
These small sculptural objects explore ways of articulating a dichotomy between external presentations of a socially-conforming self, and a volatile emotional experience. As the identifiable form on the surface of the object faces the world in a recognisable and co
nforming way, the below represents a self-identity in flux, where memory, tumultuous historical narratives and emotional instability are suggested by the echoes of violent formation evidenced in the patina of the cooled glass.
Returning to Iceland a year later, the glass casts where photographed at the origin site of the original volcanic rock. Neither the original stones, or glass descendants, can ever be brought together as one object again. Through the violence of the cutting and casting process the stones have legacy as new formations, with a new relationship to the Icelandic landscape, weather and light. Instead of absorbing the low light of the North, they now refract it.
The title Greater and Lesser Secrets, refers to the major (greater) and minor (lesser secrets) arcana in tarot, tools for divination but also for storytelling about past, present and future. Providing a counterpoint to the multiple temporal threads contained in these objects that take ancient geological materials as an origin point, these sculptures are also temporally transportive -- during their casting a few years ago, a future return to Iceland was planned, which became present time in October 2021 and now is, again, another narrative in the past.
