Spiralis

Commissioned to create a work for a new building at Portobello Dock, in west London, the wall drawing responds to the location’s site adjacent to the Grand Union Canal and its significance as a link from the inland freshwaters to the sea beyond. The subject is Vallisneria spiralis (common name tape grass or eelgrass), a reed plant that grows in brackish water. Drawn in a water tank the focus is on the elaborate tangle of the curving forms of the roots suspended below the surface.  In the finished piece the sinuous lines flow through the building, a delicate, organic intervention into these calm and clean spaces.