TerraViva: The terra is viva because when damp it acts alive, leaving traces and picking up traces.

TerraMorta: When the terra dries it ceases to have this lively relation, and becomes brittle, dusty and susceptible to cracks: morta.

Clay has long been associated with the birth of humanity. In Greek my thology Prometheus, the god friend of humans, created man from clay. In the Jewish Talmud Adam is created as a Golem, a being made of clay.

The duality of terracotta is fascinating: linked on one side to primordial ideas of humanity and at the same time associated, through brick, with the industrial revolution and forms of mechanisation and production which we now understand to be complicit with the devastation of the Earth.

Terracotta keeps a trace of time by continuously adapting to weather conditions that influence human society. From drought to flooding, terracotta reacts as if it is alive, responding like skin made of earth.

Death, like life, can be understood through its relation to trace. Being alive is to leave traces, to die is to stop picking them up. Terracotta is used as a medium to explore this idea of trace. The project explores this trace through a series of performances that use terracotta. The performances comprise a series of encounters between my body and the public realm, where terracotta becomes a mediator between the two. The remains of the performances (terracotta, skin, leaves, dirt) are then collected within a series of envelopes that hold the remains of these performance-encounters. The envelopes are kept in a letterpress surrounded by objects, materials, tools and detritus involved in realising the performances. Through this work I develop a ritual of touch and trace, terraviva and terramorta.