Insights
Working in Concrete and Line
Concrete is often treated as a background material, something poured and forgotten. In this work it is the subject. A slab is a surface to be drawn on, inlaid and cut into, and the line that runs across it carries as much of the idea as the mass beneath.
The method is slow and physical. A pattern is set out at full size on the ground, then held while the pour goes off, then worked back once the surface is firm. Steel and darker aggregate are set into the concrete so the drawing sits inside the material rather than on top of it.
What matters is that the line reads at two distances. From across a square it should give the piece its shape. Up close it should reward the person who stops, with the grain, the join and the small marks of how it was made left visible.