Køkkenmødding

2018

Køkkenmødding is Danish for “kitchen mound”, which became the source for “kitchen midden”, an archaeological term used to describe trash or garbage heap. Middens are deposits of occupation debris, broken tools or exhausted materials no longer required, by-products of human activity. They tend to be found close to living areas, slightly out of sight or out of the way. Archaeologists view kitchen middens as invaluable repositories of information about the societies which created them. 

I have approached Saint John’s former industrial sites as a sort of kitchen midden - a Saint John køkkenmødding - from which to glean inspiration, visual cues and information about our industrial identity. Like traditional kitchen middens, these sites are slightly out of the way and forgotten, bearing deposits of exhausted materials - bits of wire, metal and concrete.

Images: Oil paint, watercolour, graphite, mylar, paper, clear acrylic panel, nails, and wire, sizes vary