White Heat

Chilli powder, glass, stainless steel bolts
7000mm x 1000mm
2007

A layer of chilli powder trapped between sheets of glass was left in a room in the artist's home to absorb entering sunlight from a small window. This light bleached a crisp pathway across its surface. In the gallery the light continues to strip the substance of its colour. The work will keep on fading, collecting light from each environment in which it is placed until it has one day bleached a uniform white.

The choice of chilli powder as a material was made because it has thermal connotations of heat and burning due to its taste. Here a 'hot' substance is influenced by further heat.