Curatorial Statement: Veil of Erasure

Veil of Erasure / Spectral Taxonomy – Marine Elegies / Gallery View / 2025

Merit Award, Luxembourg Art Prize 2025

Veil of Erasure transforms environmental data into elegiac form – 135 hand-altered paper lamellae suspended within a shadow box, each representing one month in the 11.25-year interval between the planet’s four documented mass coral bleaching events. The work makes temporal acceleration visible: what should be measured in centuries now unfolds within a human lifetime.

Each lamella undergoes processes that mirror coral stress – tea staining, water damage, embossing, strategic tearing. The paper becomes reef: bleached, scarred, structurally compromised yet somehow still standing. This is documentation as lament – the archive carries the wound it records.

My approach to paper is informed by the Japanese concept of Kami (紙/神) – where “paper” and “divine spirit” share the same word. This philosophy shapes how I work: treating paper not as neutral substrate but as material that carries transformation itself. Torn edges rather than cuts acknowledge impermanence. Controlled damage becomes reverence.

Against crimson cotton backing, these predominantly white sheets create a field of absence punctuated by a single red lamella positioned at the golden ratio, functioning as both wound and warning. The work suspends between data and elegy, between scientific record and material mourning.

Three lamellae bear fragments of text, quietly visible:

Colours surrender
To the warming embrace
Coral turns to ghost

The dimensional presentation – paper suspended in shadow box behind museum glass – creates subtle shifts as light moves across the surface. What appears static reveals depth, texture, accumulated layers. Close inspection rewards patience: embossed patterns mimicking coral polyps, barely perceptible blue-green traces on four sheets (memories of what was), the varying weights and translucencies of Britannia paper and vellum creating dimensional complexity.

The work’s substantial physical presence (37 kg with museum glass, 170 × 154 cm) is deliberate – this is material testimony, not ethereal abstraction.

Veil of Erasure creates contemplative space where beauty and catastrophe coexist without resolution. It offers no redemptive narrative – only evidence of transformation, rendered tangible through materials that carry their own mortality. The work functions as threshold between scientific observation and elegiac monument, asking how we might bear witness to what vanishes.

135 months of acceleration.
135 breaths of witness.
Documentation as lament.

Veil of Erasure / Spectral Taxonomy – Marine Elegies / Video / 2025

Veil of Erasure / Spectral Taxonomy – Marine Elegies / Detail / 2025

Veil of Erasure / Spectral Taxonomy – Marine Elegies / Detail / 2025

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Recognition: Merit Award, Luxembourg Art Prize, 2025
Medium: Paper sculpture installation | Mixed media on Hahnemühle Britannia 300gsm & vellum archival paper
Artwork dimensions: 170 × 154 × 7.5 cm (depth includes shadow box)
Weight: 24.8 kg (without glass) | 37 kg (with glass)
Frame construction: Shadow box with museum glass, crimson cotton backing
Components: 135 individual lamellae, hand-altered
Techniques: Tea staining, controlled water damage, multi-level embossing, strategic tearing, minimal chromatic intervention
Text elements: Haiku fragments across 3 lamellae
Edition: Unique work
Year: 2025

Presentation requirements:

• Neutral wall color (white or pale grey preferred)
• Natural daylight or warm LED lighting (2700-3000K)
• Viewing distance: minimum 2m for full composition, closer inspection encouraged
• Climate-controlled environment (paper conservation standards)

Collection readiness:

• Professional documentation (photography + video) available
• Certificate of authenticity included
• Framing meets museum archival standards
• Shipping crate specifications available upon request

Veil of Erasure / Artist Impression

AQUISITIONS

Veil of Erasure | 2025

Original paper sculpture installation

Unique work 1/1

Price: Price available upon request

Status: Available for acquisition. Enquiries welcome.

Includes: Certificate of authenticity, professional documentation,
custom shipping crate

Enquiries: hello@stephenrussellbrett.com