skidmarks

found carpet (Dickenson’s Arcade, Moonah, Tasmania) and wood   

2400 x 7730 x 3500, 2006

As a found carpet festering with dust and DNA, excised from its original environment, [1] skidmarks is a living fossil of sorts. The title is a direct reference to the way in which the marks were ‘made’ – via the bicycle tyres of youths at play – but also a nod to the colloquialism – ‘skidmarks’ – as it relates to underpants and the body.The various phobias and embarrassments associated with the abject reality of ‘the private’ parallels our contemporary obsession to ‘clean up’ the orifices and arteries of our civic spaces. In this context dirt, damage and vandalism are rare and particular effigies; in some ways valuable counterpoints to the hygienicised, globalised and so genericised.As an iconic reconstruction of the Moonah corridor, skidmarks is a nod to these endangered species; a homage to the residues of our private marks (and parts) made public.

[1] Dickenson’s Arcade, Moonah Tasmania