Anya Gallaccio (b. 1963) creates ephemeral site-specific installations that change over time. Using a wide range of organic materials such as cut flowers, fruit, chocolate, ice, and salt, Gallaccio’s installations evolve through a process of transformation and decay.
Gallaccio’s choice of ephemeral materials means her artworks are temporary by nature, only a few elements and photographs remain as proof of what she has produced.
To correspond with the exhibition Space, Light and Time: Edward Woodman, A Retrospective, Anya Gallaccio has recreated All the rest is silence for John Hansard Gallery. The installation was photographed by Edward Woodman in 1999 when it was originally commissioned by Sadler’s Wells, London in a project curated by Judy Adam.
Here in Gallery 3, indigo dye slowly suffuses down the 7-metres of chappa silk, suspended in front of the window. Over the duration of the exhibition the dye will undergo a magical transformation, turning from clear to darkest blue. The daylight fixes the indigo, echoing the process of analogue photography so inherent to Woodman’s practice.
Indigo is the earliest colouring substance recorded in history and conveys the magic and mystery of performance. Gallaccio’s inspiration and title for All the rest is silence is taken from W.H. Auden’s poem The Sea and The Mirror, a commentary on William Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
