I was happy to receive an image of this artwork at a collectors new home from Marie-Pierre Mol at Intersections Gallery. This piece called A map of the London Blitz hovers over a mirror and though perforations in the paper it marks out every spot where a shell fell during the Blitz bombings of WW2.
I created it in 2016 in a body of work which focused on paper burning and maps, to reveal hidden layers of history: Sometimes we only glimpse the many layers which make up a place or a person. In sites in Asia which I studied, I sometimes found decay, loss, or obscurity - but at these sites also discovered the new beauty and life that grows to fill these voids. A few of the artworks in this series focused on the London Blitz, which showered over my own grandparents when they were children, and would have seemed like the world was ending. These events are horrific to think of, but also give hope that life went on, that people's spirits rallied, and that for many, survival was possible even in their darkest moment.
