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. 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 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”