Residing in Ruin
This loose triptych is part of a larger body of work developed while in residence at PADA Studios in Barreiro, Portugal.
The residency takes place in a mixed-use light industrial park that was once home to the Companhia União Fabril. CUF was one of Portugal’s largest corporations throughout the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries until it was nationalized in 1974 following the Carnation Revolution. A large portion of the park is contaminated with industrial waste and derelict structures. The material history of the site, the state of this post-industrial landscape, and its present transition to include cultural production amongst smaller industries is the point of departure for my work here.
My work was was motivated by a question about what it means to “reside in ruin.” What is to be made of the ruins? Response to this question took a reflexive to turn toward architectural and infrastructural ruins in the Lisbon metropolitan area, the base materiality of the industrial park, and the weather.
Together, an archival image (c. 1920) of a house beneath the Aqueduto das Águas Livres in Lisbon, rainwater I collected, and sand from the nearby beach formed into a ‘negative’ arcade of pointed arches compose a loose triptych.
At issue in the work is a push to expand the concept of ruin. This includes an effort to grapple with the enduring influence of the material remnants of empire and corresponding epistemic systems. Both gestures are framed by a re-presentation of base material elements defining quotidian experiences of exposure and scarcity.
2024