Born 1963 Anya Gallaccio is a Brittish artist who’s work I was first exposed to at the Modern 1 art Gallery in Edinburgh. Gallaccio had an installation of ten thousand roses under the title ‘Red on Green’. Over the course of the exhibition the roses turned from their luscious red to a putrid black, their sweet smell replaced with that of rotting flowers. This concept must have cemented itself in my sub-conscious as I am now exploring the use of temporary installations myself. I am interested by the use of works that will change over the course of time they are exhibited, this process being key in the concept I am exploring, Memento Mori. Organic matter tends to find its way into the vast majority of Gallaccio’s work, therefor the theme of life and death (or Memento Mori) is prevalent throughout.

‘Preserve Beauty’ is another of Anya Gallacio’s works that integrates organic matter with fine art. Gallaccio’s use of perspex glass to slow the rotting process is an element to this piece that interests me. The preservation of organic matter could symbolise immortality, and the purposeful sabotage of this process could act as a Piero Manzoni style up yours to a permanence obsessed art world, as well as a nod to the inevitability of mortality.

The unpredictability of Gallaccio’s has an element of acceptance of what is and what will be, a quality rarely found during the process of creating an artwork. The value attached to ‘perfect works of art’ and the permanence linked to said value is something Anya Gallaccio and Piero Manzoni have inspired me to avoid in this project. The cynical nature of Manzoni’s work and the thought provoking nature of the natural element of Gallaccio’s work act as perfect comments on the materialistic nature of society.