Abstract/Summary

A sheet of paper is laid out flat. It is a sheet of a particular size. Most likely, it was much larger before. Sometimes the size is smaller, or longer and narrower. 100kg of clay is used to cover the surface of the paper. Sometimes the 100kg of clay is made up of packs of 12.5kg each. Sometimes it is four packs of 25kg. It depends on the supplier of the clay. It is important only for a short period and not beyond. The clay is spread from the centre of the paper outwards: lengthwise along the middle first, forming a kind of spine, and then sideways, similar to the arrangement of bones. The spreading is done quickly. All of the clay should be used. The consideration hovers somewhere between the amount of clay already spread out and the amount of clay still to be used, and the changing proportion between those two amounts. Over several days, the paper covered in clay rests. If left exposed, in an environment that is considerably dry and warm, the liquid (water) starts to be separate from the solid (clay particles) through a process of mass transfer also called evaporation. The gradual separation of liquid from solid has visual, material, spatial, and sometimes even topological consequences. A shape is cut out of brown cardboard. The shape is a long piece of triple-layered cardboard with two corrugated layers in between. Cutting through these layers poses some difficulty, and makes for cuts that are not so even or neat. Evenness is of no concern. Nor neatness. The mind is set on the shape and its future. The cut-out shape is placed on a table. It looks like the letter U, but very elongated. The brown cardboard shape is covered with brown packaging tape and any excess is trimmed off. Additional strips of long, brown, corrugated cardboard are cut. These strips are also covered with brown packaging tape and any excess is trimmed off. These strips are curved like a wall around the edges of the cut out shape and fastened with brown packaging tape. This work is done quickly and methodically, in an attempt to complete the wall on both the outside and the inside of the shape as quickly, but also as sturdily, as possible. The brown packaging tape sometimes sticks to itself. Sometimes it doesn’t stick down so well, sometimes the wrong ends stick together, and sometimes it doesn’t hold the walls to the shape so well. This is of no concern. This doesn’t appear as error or imperfection. This activity is repeated in varying sizes.