This body of work is devoted to the essence of existence and the question of its persistence.  I am probing the evidence or mark of existence.  When I enter a space unknown to me, I try to imagine a familiarity within the environment.  Who has walked here before me?  Who will walk after me?  Will my presence be perceived or will the essence of my existence have melted into the walls of this space?  Having always been interested in the history of places, people and objects, I am creating works that explore the history of existences.  I travel to places of ancient ruins, recording these wonders of the past with my camera.  Within these places, a feeling of life persisting pervades.  The sensation I experience while walking across ancient stones and through the aged walls touches within.  It is as if the stone laid so long ago wishes to reveal those who walked here before me.  The persistence of such existences, either imagined or real, is represented in my work. 

To create simulations of artifacts discovered among ruins, I have chosen materials prone to imperfections and natural decay.  I combine photography, sculpture and painting to convey forms appearing or disappearing through surfaces.   I create images, representing an environment.  Then, combine the images with plaster casts of human forms that feel to have existed within the environment portrayed.  I transfer the images to the sculptures, and paint to augment an illusory perception of the object’s histories.  These works address the enigma of existence.  Does the essence of our existence permeate that which remains of our surroundings?  Do we leave our mark?   Will there be evidence of our existence after today?

Or is it as Karl Marx wrote, “All that is solid melts into air.”?

                                                                                    Anisha Blanés Kall