Plough 2021 (Gastatelier LeoXIII & Het Archief NL)
Plough took the transcription of a diary from 1919 by my ancestor Alexander Johnstone as a starting point. In his diary Alexander grapples with a forming egalitarian politics, records home remedies and adapts lines of poems into the news of the day. His fragmented thoughts document someone drafting their hopes for a future after huge social change, whilst holding a sense of complexity, irony and wit. The exhibition put the process of drafting and the rebuilding of disparate parts at its centre. Where support structures for sculptures come prior to what is held, written words are dissolved with bleach leaving gaps between language, and fragments, sketches and underdrawings take precedent over what is fixed and finished.
The text Plough that accompanied the exhibition can be read here