“Dust Agitator” by Alice Jarry
Title:
- Dust Agitator
Artist(s) and People Involved:
Exhibiting Artist(s):
Symposium:
Creation Year:
- 2018 - 2019
Medium:
- Site-specific kinetic installation, variable dimensions, dichroic glass, felt, glass dust, stepper motors, LEDs.
Artist Statement:
The Dust Agitator series (2018-2019) explores the aesthetic, critical and sensory potential of a residual material at the end of its cycle: a fine and harmful dust produced by the glass recycling industry in Quebec. The kinetic installation which highlights fine particles initially intended for landfills produces chromatic light modulations interfering with the peculiarities of this materiality: volatile clouds which, over time, fall back, sediment and accumulate.
Proceeding by resonances between the studio, the recycling centres and the gallery, this research results from field work carried out with recyclers in Quebec and Belgium and emerges from a sensitivity to the interaction processes underlying material production. In the context of of ecological emergency, the work inspired by the operation of recycling centres intend to shift pressing issues into a new field of vigilance. This sustainable engagement with an “exhausted” materiality thus addresses sentience from the perspective of the ecosophical world: it investigates the geological, socio-environmental and artistic entanglements mobilized by this dust, linked to raw materials and technology, as well as artistic and industrial practices.
