Handpainted marble ink blotter pad9/28/2023 ![]() The various methods of collage I use in my work are a sideways link to these phenomena. The reuse and movement of fragments of former buildings or monuments is common in Rome, Spolia (thinks also of the spoils of war) shapes the city. The ever presence of marble in the streets, buildings and design consciousness of Rome is dependent on technologies and labour of many kinds over centuries and across continents. I enjoy the contradictions in this way of coming into being. Marbled paper is made by floating ink on cold water thickened with seaweed, the ink expands and drifts. Marble is a metamorphic rock, made through heat and compression, but it is also a metaphoric rock with swirls of stories, myth and history embedded in its mineral structure. The extraordinary anamorphic paintings and exquisite sundial calendar in the monastery of the minims was made in semi-secret to avoid the censure of the church for venturing too far into science and mathematical speculation, clashes between faith and science which still have ramifications today. Visiting artist’s studios in Centocelle we discussed the benefits of collectives and the effect of property prices on community structures, something which has driven many artists from London in the last 10 years. Being told that it was ash not lava which caused the disaster in Pompeii was a shock bringing to mind images of ash covered Vincentian streets on the news. Vincent, the small Caribbean island where my mother was born. In Pompeii I was reminded of the recent eruption of the volcano in St. Visiting sites together is an ideal form of interdisciplinary research because discussion flows from a newly shared experience informed by experience, curiosity and the different specialist knowledges of the whole group. It’s amazing how memory is activated by revisited space, though my initial visit was so brief. I first came to Rome with students from Cambridge in the 1990’s when teaching architecture there from the perspective of an artist who handled materials. 2nd century AD mass production, Villa dei Quintili
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