Dust to dust

15cm x 15cm x 4cm

 

Description

Three small glass bottles in a box shelf: the first contains threads, the second dried slk worms, the third house dust.

 

Themes, comments & story lines

Reminiscent of the shelves full of glass jars containing odd specimen, this is a 'small-thing' version. The tangle of threads in the medicine bottle - what are they supposed to cure? Or are they representations of entwined organisms, bodily tubes, tapeworms, intestines, DNA strings or even neural pathways by some stretch of the imagination? The dried sil worms came out of silk coccons, that were opened and dyed in the making of Silk Road Shrine, a place for the lost souls of departed silkworms to assemble and be honoured. House dust, the eternal accompaniment of all domestic life, is preserved in the third glass bottle. Particles of biblical substance - dust to dust - and the target of so many domestic chores. How much life time is spent (and whose time is it?) in the fight against dust, so many fabrics and fibres involved: mops and sponges, rags and cloths, brushes and brooms, hoover bags and feather dusters.

 "Medical investigations of the early nineteenth century drew very marked attention to dust, and to its effect on hand and factory workers. [...]The particular hazards of cotton dust, in the rocessing of fibre for spinning and weaving, and in the rag trade in general (in paper making until wood pulp replaced rags, and in the flock and shoddy used in upholstery and bedding) continued to be investigated until well into this century, and indeed, byssinosis was not recognized in the USA as an occupational disease of cotton workers until the 1960s. [...] In the UK the category of trades which were considered dangerous from the dusts they produced was widened during the course of the nineteenth century. By its end, bronzing in the printing process, flax and linen milling, cotton amd clothing manufacture, brass finishing and ivory and pearl button-making were among the dusty occupations subject to regulation." (Steedman 2001: 20,21)

Steedman, Carolyn, 2001. Dust. Manchester: Manchester University Press.