corrosion and decay in my work
Corrosion and decay serve as fundamental themes in my work, functioning as both material and process, while also shaping my aesthetic and conceptual framework.
I engage with the environment through the recording of location sounds and field recordings, capturing fragments that I then manipulate to reveal the traces and textures of deterioration that develop over time.
Often I work with things that have been degraded by time or environment. The slow and inevitable erosion of all earthly things … out of destruction comes something new. Change is constant.
My work includes textured and layered atmospheres, the result of dust, rust, dilapidation, weathering, fragmentation, reverberation which all contribute to a sense of decay not just sonically but also visually.
The affect is often one of punctuated silence, materials breaking down, what remains, what fades. These textures may be heard in drones, in low-volume ‘particles’ of sound, in the decay of recordings themselves.
I use decay as a way to explore memory, abandonment, and changing landscapes. I find that decay is a record of what was, what is, and what may become.
I embrace the idea that decay is not just loss or ruin, but also generative. New things emerge, meaning is found in ruin, as well as the aesthetic impact of erosion.
All of my work is imperfect and incomplete and this is viewed as virtues rather than failures. Decay becomes a way of seeing the material world’s temporality but also as an evolving form of poetry.
© 2022 Jimmy Peggie