Passed, which takes its name from a one word sentence in James Joyce’s Ulysses, looks at fluidity, transience and memory in a modern, capitalist society.
To quote Karl Marx, “All that is solid melts into air” and here the focus of that flux is on closed down shops and businesses, the residue of 21st Century consumerism. A walk along today’s High Street provides an encounter with the ghost images of the past, the remnants of what happens when retail fails to keep up with the demands of capitalism.
The businesses themselves may have closed long ago, but their afterimages live on in full public view, a sombre reminder that Omnia Transit (Everything Passes).
Prime Retail
Cross-stitch and others
270mm x 322mm
2022
Mono Ex-Retail
Six works based on original photographs taken through the front windows of closed down shops and businesses, as found at various locations. Each a memento mori to the death of retail.
Cogita Mori (Remember Death)
Cross-stitch and others
727mm x 1170mm
2022
Nil Omne (All Is Nothing)
Cross-stitch and others
727mm x 1170mm
2022
Animam Agere (To Have One’s Last Breath)
Cross-stitch and others
727mm x 1170mm
2022
Mortem Obire (To Face Death)
Cross-stitch and others
727mm x 1170mm
2022
Respice Finem (Consider The End)
Cross-stitch and others
727mm x 1170mm
2022
Omnia Transit (Everything Passes)
Cross-stitch and others
727mm x 1170mm
2022
Four Shrines
Four small shrines, each dedicated to a closed down business, photographed and given its own hand sewn Latin reminder.
Mors Immature (An Untimely Death)
Mixed Media
360mm x 260mm x 38mm
2023
Extremum Vitae Spiritum Edere (To Give Up The Ghost)
Mixed Media
360mm x 260mm x 38mm
2023
Pulvis Et Umbra Sumus (We Are But Dust And Shadow)
Mixed Media
360mm x 260mm x 38mm
2023
Mors Vincit Omnia (Death Conquers All)
Mixed Media
360mm x 260mm x 38mm
2023
Requiescat In Pace
Ten bags representing closed down Dublin shops and businesses as mentioned in the works of James Joyce.
Gouache, Letraset and thread on brown paper bags
Each bag 170mm x 230mm
2023
Mark Scammell 