Layers of Soil and Solvent
2024

"Layers of Soil and Solvent" is my response to the illegal dumping and burning of toxic waste transported from all over Europe to the region of Campania in Southern Italy. As a result of this major environmental disaster, farmlands, cultivated fields, irrigation canals, livestock, vegetation, wildlife and residents of 55 communities are being systematically poisoned by the discharge of manufactured chemicals, solvents, paints, scraps from processing ceramics, leathers and industrial waste seeping into the soil and air since the 1980s. The affected area is known as The Triangle of Death and The Land of Fires. Currently plant remediation is in progress to purify the soil from pollutants and heavy metals. For “Layers of Soil and Solvent” I created two rubber stamps, one for the word “soil” and the other for the word “solvent”. I dabbed each stamp on an ink pad with water-soluble black ink. I pressed each word repeatedly onto sheets of acid free Bristol paper alternating between rows of the two stamps. Through this repetitive motion, a sense of space and light began to emerge evoking land and terrain. Letters shared by the two words seeped from one to the other. The toxic dumping in Campania was deposited in deeply excavated land by intentionally alternating between a layer of soil and a layer of pollutants. “Layers of Soil and Solvent” consists of nine monoprints installed as an inverted triangle to emphasize depth and land penetration.