Rachel Bacon. Skin, 2006

With ‘Skin”, I would like to make a series of very detailed drawings of different types of skin, using sand and coloured pigments. The drawings are to be made on the ground in public areas in the city, and will be well integrated into the surrounding situation and architecture. Each drawing will be a different size, depending on the location, but most of them should be relatively small, about 120 x 70 cm. In Rauma they will be located in an office building of Police, Judicial system and Employment exchange office.

I will first make a sketch on paper, which I will lay on the ground and then cover with sand, so that the sand can also be easily removed if necessary. From each drawing I will be making photographs, of the location, and also a shot from directly above the drawing. Though the pieces will be temporary, the photographs will remain as documents of what has taken place.

It is a contradictory thing to make something that takes a lot of work and which is temporary; but it is essential to the meaning of the piece. The material world is one of constant change; nothing in it or of it stands still. I think that we counteract our fear of this fragile state and our own vulnerability in many different ways. The idea of time is one of the ways to, through measurement, attempt to stop this shifting state. Sand is associated with the passing of time, as contained in an hourglass, for example. And art is another way to try and capture the moment, to create a fixed reality, though through art, and our own awareness of the transitory nature of our lives, perhaps some comfort can be derived. With these sand drawings of skin, I wish to pull back a layer to expose our most sensitive and easily damaged organ, to use art to expose vulnerability and maybe also to heal it.