Joanne Forrest
Concrete Blocks and Eggs (2020)
Concrete, cardboard, wool, steel filings, nails, eggshells and modrocTM
Installation: 250cm x 200cm x 30cm
This installation was created during the pandemic of 2020 using found objects from the home. It is 250cm x 200cm x 30cm and consists of over 1,500 broken eggshells, each covered in modrocTM, set amidst a selection of concrete blocks varying in size from 30cm3 to 10cm3. Each concrete block is combined with different materials including packaging materials such as cardboard and sheep’s wool as well as rusty steel filings. These materials puncture the surface of the concrete rendering it useless as a building material, fracturing its strength and accelerating the process of ultimate failure and disintegration of the materials.
The work is full of contradictions and tension both in the materiality and of the making. The eggs were about a moment in time during lockdown, of experimenting, reflection and mindfulness; the repetitive nature of covering the eggs came to represent my own fertility cycle, womanhood and home. They have a materiality about them, they are fibrous and contain the physical trace of the maker. They are both strong and sensitive and a delicate juxtaposition against the harsh brutality of the concrete blocks.
For an audio description of Concrete Blocks and Eggs (2020) by Joanne Forrest please click below:
