About The Artwork

'During lockdown, on my government-mandated health walks around Chorlton, I noticed a change in the litter I was seeing. Fewer plastic bottles and take away cartons but a growing collection of disposable gloves, wipes and masks. The gloves felt particularly poignant.

Being hand shapes, they suggest human presence no longer there. Some looked as though they were still inhabited with a hand, others had fallen to form gestures (not always polite) maybe suggesting a feeling or reaction to the pandemic, some formed shapes like someone practising shadow puppets and then there were combinations as though they were communicating at a time when touch and communication were so restricted and some combined with other litter to suggest a situation. So I started a collection of photographs as a way of documenting the pandemic.

These panels are a combination of manipulated textiles and cement cast in domestic plastic packaging; the embossed patterns reminiscent of urban textures as the gloves were found discarded on pavements or caught in gutters and drains. As my collection of photographs grew, so did my series of cast panels forming this Memorial. Entombed in the cement, it reinforced the permanence of loss and the long-lasting effect of this pandemic. The gloves symbolise fleeting human interaction and loss. The waste of time and resources during covid-19 leading to lost lives, particularly the disregard for the protection of keyworkers. It felt important to also respond to the tragic death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests through this series.

'

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- Nerissa Cargill Thompson

Title:

Glove Story : Memorial (2020)

Medium: