This and 60 million, 2023, sheet rock and embossed roofing paper markings, 48” * 96” * 12”
This and 60 million (2023) was sculpted by slicing into asphalt roofing paper used to make drawings such as Lean on Me (2023). Meris used an X-acto knife to cut into the roofing paper while making these cuts into a 4 ft * 8 ft board of sheetrock. The excessive amounts of layered cuts created an abstraction. This mark-making process is meant to be both a cartographic process, where Meris considers the landscape of the Bahamas and the wider Caribbean region, and more intersellically, about starscapes and glaxacies. What if the edge of the solar system is the beginning of the Middle Passage? The sheetrock is painted Benjamin PM -14, the exact institutional white as MoMA: PS1. This and 60 million (2023) is installed at a 130-degree angle and blends into the upper wall of the gallery. The title: This and 60 million references Toni Morrison’s dedication of Beloved to the 60 million Africans stolen from Africa for the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. This and 60 million (2023) references minimalist sculptures of the 60’s and 70’s.
This and 60 million (detail), 2023, sheet rock and embossed roofing paper markings, 48” * 96” * 12”
This and 60 million (detail), 2023, sheet rock and embossed roofing paper markings, 48” * 96” * 12”
This and 60 million (detail), 2023, sheet rock and embossed roofing paper markings, 48” * 96” * 12”
This and 60 million (detail), 2023, sheet rock and embossed roofing paper markings, 48” * 96” * 12”