Hang in there

2022-2023

Material painting and performance

Calcium chloride (salt), steel sheets, magnets

Each piece is 35x117x25

This is a mutual painting: I, as the painter, am in control of the material until the exhibition, and the material takes over control during the exhibition in collaboration with the exhibition space and its experiences. The breathing and sweating of people who come into the exhibition space increase the chaos of the painting, which I also call material performance due to its performative and constantly changing, evolving, destroying, and reborn nature.

The calcium chloride liquefies over time depending on the room conditions, predominantly humidity, and it wounds and rusts the metal. The work investigates temporality and the provocative "sensorily uncatchable" nature of self-destroying materials.

Calcium chloride (CaCt) is a white, crystalline compound widely used for de-icing roads, controlling dust, and as a desiccant due to its highly hygroscopic nature. Unless it is kept in an airtight container (which | call a mode of death, it will absorb moisture from the air and undergo a chemical change, eventually becoming liquid. New ones will be added next to each other during the exhibition.