[Dust & Dirt]
DUST AND DIRT
2018
Plaster, Paper Mâché, Plexiglass, Dust, Pollen
Antwerp, Belgium
The world is filled with forms that remain unseen.
Not because they are hidden, but because they exist beyond the scale of ordinary perception. Entire architectures inhabit the surface of a flower. Entire landscapes drift through the air unnoticed. What appears insignificant often reveals extraordinary complexity once attention is directed towards it.
Dust and Dirt emerged through an investigation into pollen structures observed under magnification. Removed from their natural scale, these microscopic forms appeared strangely architectural. They resembled relics, monuments, ruins, and speculative constructions rather than biological matter. The distinction between nature and architecture seemed momentarily suspended.
The work developed through two parallel gestures.
The first involved the reconstruction of a pollen cell through plaster and paper mâché. Enlarged beyond recognition, the microscopic became monumental. A structure ordinarily invisible to the human eye acquired physical presence, weight, and scale.
The second emerged through accumulation rather than construction. A sheet of plexiglass was exposed to the environment during pollen season, allowing dust and airborne particles to settle naturally upon its surface. Over time, the invisible movements of atmosphere generated formations that echoed the structures from which the sculpture originated.
One work was built.
The other was discovered.
One enlarged the invisible.
The other allowed the invisible to reveal itself.
Together they propose a shift in perception. The value of an object does not necessarily reside within its size, utility, or visibility. Meaning often emerges through observation itself. The act of looking transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary.
Dust and Dirt marks an early moment within Tae's practice in which material research, scientific observation, and philosophical enquiry first began to converge. It stands as an invitation to reconsider those things that exist continually around us, yet rarely enter consciousness.
The work asks a simple question.
How much of the world remains unseen, not because it is absent, but because we have forgotten how to look?
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