i like it when u sand

Sep 24

2 min read

i like it when u sand is a multi-dimensional, multi-spacial, multi-layered artistic project that is trying to capture sand while embracing the impossibility of doing so. We explore sand as a verb and a process rather than a static material, therefore tuning into its mechanisms and internal grammars. Bringing together language, narratives, and objects made of sand, but intentionally excluding sand itself as an exhibited object, this project studies the socio-geo-political, geological, chemical, and poetic trajectories of this essential material for life on earth.

The only material we found capable of grasping all the sand as a material and as a concept is language. Following Marcia Bjornerud's idea that rocks are not nouns but verbs, we propose sand as a verb, as an action, as a movement of the earth, of animals, humans, and materials. Working from four different countries, we attempted to gather and come up with definitions of the verb “sand”. We wrote a collaborative poem listing the definitions of what sanding could mean.

To exhibit our poem, we created an installation composed of a video of our explorations with the material and objects that connect to the materiality, history, or use of sand, collected on site before the exhibition and during the months leading up to it in the four different countries where the artists live.

this project was part of the Inspiration forum's trajectories program