I am fascinated with the relationship we have with dust, dirt and the
physical traces of existence that we leave behind us. For years I have
been engaged in an ongoing practice of collecting, archiving and
recording materials including hair, skin and the dust that gathers in
my home. Like domestic tumbleweed, these delicate dust structures are
formed as a result of the gradual disintegration of objects and
matter. These physiological cast-offs contain traces of existence, a
natural archiving of presence and absence within a space.

My work explores the relationship that we as humans have with
materials such as our own bodily waste materials and I have produced a
significant body of work that explores household dust. I am very
interested in the seemingly banal biological processes that we
experience daily, and the disconnection and repulsion that people feel
with materials such as skin and hair once they are no longer attached
to our bodies. I have also recently started an exploration of the
input and output of materials within our bodies and produced by our
daily actions and started to consider ways of tracking or recording
these to produce a quantifiable measure of our material interaction
with our environment.

I’d like to explore my subject from a scientific perspective and to
actually analyze my dust specimens to establish and examine the
components contained within. We can identify genetic information
contained within hair and skin; materials that are found within dust
and this is an area I am excited about having the chance to explore
more in the future both visually and conceptually. I am pursuing
opportunities for scientific collaboration that would allow me to
photograph dust using microscopic apparatus and to observe my subject
matter in new and revealing ways.

Naomi Hart, May 2013