Personal Structures: Works and Dialogues

Inclusion in project that documents the working process of 16 international artists
Selected for the ‘Personal Structures’ project by Rene Rietmeyer and Peter Lodermeyer because of Rae's exhibition history with Gallery Niklas von Bartha, London (2000-02) and her work in the field of three-dimensional painting, this body of work addresses how earth can be explored in a rigorous, conceptual way that concentrates on the physical mass of clay and sand as colour and its physical properties when poured; and how clay and sand can be gathered and recorded with minimal disturbance and intervention to the landscape in order to preserve the evidence of a specific moment in time. Utilizing a specific set of concepts, including using the same size Perspex box for each particular beach, island or quarry, particular grade sieves for each earth collected, designing pouring holes to explore the qualities of various earths, meticulously recording their provenance and recording changes to the location over time photographically, a series of earthworks were produced that re-address minimalism and process art.

Sixteen artists from 11 countries on three continents were selected to participate in this project: Marcus Abel, Jeong sook Ahn, Nelleke Beltjens, Jakob Gasteiger, Johannes Girardoni, Callum Innes, Jus Juchtmans, Jae Ko, Tomoji Ogawa, Frank Piasta, Thomas Pihl, Paul Raguenes, Nicola Rae, Rene Rietmeyer, Yuko Sakurai and Takashi Suzuki. Funded by Global Art Affairs, New York and the Ludwig Museum, Koblenz, a series of earthworks by Rae were exhibited in two exhibitions (2003, 2005) and the process documented through a series of dialogues in an accompanying publication that documented the entire project, ‘Personal Structures’ published in 2003 (ISBN 0-9745148-0-2). Subsequently a symposium on the project was also held resulting in the second publication (ISBN 0-9745148-3-7).