Concealment | Revelation

Concealment/ Revelation explores the tension between hiding and showing a ‘known’ material, and the opportunities allowed from a fresh view of this material. This investigation uses gum nuts as the material under question, dislocating it from the common observed state, manipulating the material through an artificial process, revealing it in a new, distorted state and then re-introducing the original state to the distorted one. It is the process through which this material has gone that allows for the final superposition of new vs. old, an encounter which questions our assumption between what is expected and what is discovered afresh, what was concealed and what the new material state reveals. The inspiration for this process stems directly from the standard act performed by this material: protection of seeds to secure future life of the plant. The project draws further inspiration from Joseph Beuys’ felt & animal fat projects, that confront viewers with sensual landscapes presented in an abstract manner, and similarly, Ernesto Neto’s work: Just Like Drops in Time, Nothing. Visual, olfactory and textural qualities of the gum nut can be explored by the viewer as if for the first time, without fundamental changes to natural qualities present in the original material state.