Arriving in Tossa de Mar for the AIR.CAT residency in June 2021 I came across guide books from the 80s and began ripping out pages I liked. I piled these into groups that bore some relation to each other. I kept being drawn to the line where the sea meets the sky and thus began deliberately seeking images of the horizon. Upon reflection, I realised that this was a reaction to having been trapped in London during the pandemic, and a greater, more general desire of mine to escape the city.
I think I have been missing the horizon. It gives me perspective. It reminds me of my place in the world and our place in the universe. I’ve spent so much of the last few years entangled in the city, without a horizon and hardly any sky.
Alongside the horizons, I was also drawn to the curves of the tidelines, cutting these exaggerated shapes into images of the local beaches. The shapes reminded me of the tessellations I was fascinated with as a child, which inspired me to mirror these cut outs to create a repetitive tile pattern. Influenced by the incredible tilework of the region, specifically that of Gaudi, plus mandalas and Islamic abstract patterns, these paper tiles were printed and pasted throughout the centre of the room, extending out into the reception area of the Museum.
For the installation of Anhelo at the Museu Municipal de Tossa de Mar I wheat-pasted onto the walls xerox enlargements of these horizons, collaged together to create familiar but fictitious scenes. These were pasted vertically on the walls, and across the ceiling and floor, to create a 360 experience where the viewer was invited to lay down on a sunlounger to contemplate the imaginary horizons.
Inspired by the traditional runes I made from stones collected on the beach when I was teenager, and the nail varnish-painted pebbles I used to make with my family as a child in Spain, I ran a rune-making workshop where my fellow residents were invited to paint nail varnish designs of their choosing onto stones we found on the beach. For the duration of the exhibition, visitors were also invited to paint their own runes and add to the collection.