Miroslava Večeřová
Before It Was Water

Tidal zones are places of continual transformation, where materials, organisms and histories are deposited, eroded and reformed. In Before It Was Water, Večeřová draws on embodied interactions with these shifting landscapes to destabilise human-centred patterns of thought. The present is sliced and stitched with immense stretches of time, while personal coordinates dissolve in a mesh of interspecies encounters and deep-time explorations.

Sitting somewhere between drawing and sculpture, each pastel drawing is housed in a Rococo-inspired, flamed copper or stainless steel frame. Rusty, earthy hues, shimmering pink speckles and luminous green patinas are brought out through exchanges of heat. Left unwaxed, the copper will continue to oxidise and organically shift over time.

Drafted on either jet-black or white paper, the drawings’ composite silhouettes emerge from observations of local wildlife. Luminous jellyfish orbs emit seaweed tentacles, clusters of celestial bodies unfurl and nebulous forms come into view. Like windows onto an underwater dwelling, the metal frames draw audiences into unexplored habitats and rarely seen beings.

Materials transfer between the works, binding the exhibition into an interlocking system. Chalk dust collected during the sculpting process is added to the drawings as pigment, while limestone appears within both the drawings and the chalk sculpture. Each work carries material traces of another, unsettling any fixed distinction between drawing, sculpture and site.

The suspended sculpture is carved from fallen chalk retrieved from the shoreline bellow the Seven Sisters. Its bodice is secured with a chain found on Rock-O-Nore Beach, carrying traces of Hastings’ fishing history into the gallery. Forged seaweed components tangle through its links. Part sea creature, part relic and part reptilian, an atemporal being meeting the gaze of those who stand before it.

Every Second Breath is an immersive four-channel audio installation developed collaboratively with sound artist Isobel Anderson. It holds space throughout the exhibition, providing a sonic backdrop to the surrounding drawings and sculpture while commanding a distinct physical and atmospheric presence of its own. Rather than arriving at the landscape with a predetermined performance, Anderson and Večeřová allowed an organic choreography to unfold between themselves and their surroundings. Recordings made along the Seven Sisters coastline, at Rock-O-Nore Beach and in Večeřová’s studio bring together underwater vocal experiments, breathwork, lapping waves and hands dragging through sand. Played through a custom-built sound system designed by Tony D. Birch which directs sound upwards towards the ceiling, diffusing it throughout the exhibition space. Experienced from below, the work creates the impression of being submerged beneath the water.

Across Before It Was Water, chalk is sculpted sonically and physically, copper is transformed through thermal oxidation, and bodily interactions with landscape become sonic material. Collaging her internal experiences with external environments, Večeřová prompts audiences to corrode their own divisions between self and site.