Heterotopia continued my research into humanity as a geological force and builds on previous installations SPAN (2017) and Pellucidar (2018). Heterotopia is an illuminated, mirrored, four sided enclosure lined by beaten ceramic forms with cut, glazed and lustred surfaces. It references the grid; energy flow, technology, storage of information, urbanisation; an association with science, materiality and coding. The grid is reflected in two dimensional mirror planes giving an apparition of infinite three dimensionality. Heterotopia reflects the material world, the exploitation of the earth, the quest for personal enhancement, wealth and notoriety and offers a view (described as a portal in an article about the work) into an imagined future.
The reflection of our own feet in the work make us complicit in the outcome, not able to alter the internal infinite expansion but still leaving a trace on the earth.
Michel Foucault used the term ‘heterotopia’ to describe spaces considered as ‘other’, spaces which were at the same time real and unreal, transforming and contradictory. Robert Smithson used mirrors to explore his site/nonsite theories and as metaphors for art’s relationship with nature. Both of these informed this work.