Reconciliation
2014
Seashell, bowl, water, main components of sea water diluted in equivalent proportions to the sea (magnesium sulfite, potassium chlorite, calcium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium chlorite)
10 x 40 x 40 cm
Reconciliation derives from a desire to accommodate nature within culture, commerce, and daily life. Through salts and other products bought in supermarkets and pharmacies, the work chemically mimes seawater, creating an allegedly ideal habitat for a seashell, the supposedly natural element of the work. Many of its kind are also available to be bought from souvenir shops in any country with a coast line. It carries an interesting history: from Brazilian Sambaquis to European curiosity cabinets, and other stories of conchylomania. Its usage within stuff and things, its materiality – however small – carries within itself not only nature, but also a kitschy taste that goes back centuries. All in the fossil of an animal of which the missing mussel is its mold.