Absence (Moscow)
2012, Marble, smalti, ceramic glass, and gold, 253 x 150 cm
The Absence Project is a series of site-specific mosaics, positioned within the arches of old buildings. Two lines of tesserae trace the outline of a central figure that is left unfilled, a void through which one sees the wall behind. This space - not nothing, but a delineated absence – evokes a sense of emptiness and desire.
The notion of permanence invoked by the traditional mosaic background lies in direct contrast to the deterioration of the surrounding building, underlining the break between the ideal world promised by the church – in which there is justice, reason, immortality – and that in which we find ourselves: imperfect, complicated, and given to decline.
Absence (Moscow) was installed in the ARTPLAY Design Center in Moscow in October 2012.