Steps/washed over was a site-specific installation at West Norwood Cemetery, London, forming part of the Curious Art Trail (2013) curated by Jane Millar.
” The photographic installation on the closed doorway of the mausoleum of the Pond family (built 1881) uses a (cropped) image looking from a Palazzo onto the Venetian lagoon as trompe-oeil—juxtaposing two very different ‘psycho-geographical’ settings to reflect on the transitory nature of life.
When I first visited the site, it was winter and the architectural elements within the cemetery including branches and tree trunks were most apparent. This accentuated the stark reality of the cement wall closing off the doorway of the mausoleum. It called for an image that would create a passageway thus enabling an understanding of becoming rather than being confronted with the barred entrance of a place outside of reach. At the time of the trail, I wrote the following statement to accompany my piece. ‘A doorway is a threshold. Here it becomes a metaphor for movement between two worlds. The tiled steps lead up to an image taken from another place where steps are washed over by the softness of water from the lagoon; its turquoise luminosity recalls the colour of the tiles suggesting movement between there and here, here and there.’”
Thoma (2016), “Blau – longing and the repetitions of (Deleuzian) becoming”, International Journal of the Image, Volume 8, Issue 1.
https://www.a-n.co.uk/news/curious-connecting-with-hidden-histories-and-geographies/
Andrea Thoma 