A thousand motes of dust (in every cubic inch), 2026-ongoing
work-in-progress, collaboration with Justine Kohleal
A thousand motes of dust (in every cubic inch) is a developing research-creation project that investigates dust, coal residue, soot, smoke, and aerosols as both medium and metaphor through a portrait of place, relation, and time. The project examines how particulate matter materializes economic histories, environmental conditions, and human relations across time and space. It infiltrates lungs, clings to skin and clothing, travels with us from place to place, mixes with the microbes of our bodies, and settles in the spaces we inhabit; it binds the human to the nonhuman, the living to the inert, and the past to the present. It also reminds us of our finitude: everything eventually becomes dust. As both a marker of deep geological time and an everyday measure of neglect or attention, dust renders time visible, a silent particulate archive of the worlds we move through.
The first iteration of this project anchors on the entangled temporalities of the currently defunct, formerly coal-burning Rossdale Powerplant in Edmonton, Alberta: a site whose history connects the current-day urban sprawl, the industrial and economic booms of the 1900s, colonial settler trading posts of the 1800s, and a 15,000-year history as a sacred meeting place for Treaty 6 Indigenous peoples.
In July 2026, we were invited to exhibit our work-in-progress video work in a group exhibition at the University Museum of Contemporary Arts and Cultures (MUACC), co-curated by Laura Leuzzi (Robert Gordon University, Scotland) and Antonella Sbrilli (Sapienza University, Rome). The exhibition, "Time and Entanglement," was part of the 19th Triennial Conference for the International Society for the Study of Time (ISST) at the University of Cagliari, Italy.
press: Porcu, Franca Rita. “Non Abbiamo tempo di aspettare.” L’Unione Sarda. June 30, 2026.
