I started this project as I would most projects nowadays, as they tend to be site specific. This started with the word ‘substance’, The name of the show. I knew what the word meant but only in its common language usage, and so I looked at the meaning of substance:

It is a noun, From Middle English, or Anglo-French and derived from Latin substantia, from substant-, substans, present participle of substare to stand under, from sub- stare to stand.

It originates in its common English form in the 14th century, but has been found in documents in the early 12^th Century

However has come to mean:
1 a : essential nature : the essence or fundamental or characteristic part or quality
2 a : ultimate reality that underlies all outward manifestations and change
b : practical importance: usefulness
3 : material possessions : property <a family of substance>
4 a : physical material from which something is made or which has discrete existence
b : matter of particular or definite chemical constitution
c : something (as drugs or alcoholic beverages) deemed harmful and usually subject to legal restriction <possession of a controlled substance> <substance abuse>

After reading this I became far more aware of the process of making words, I did not know that substance is loosely derived from the word to stand…This became interesting to me. I am constantly fascinated by histories. The processes and procedures that I go through, as a person, especially in terms of my art making, the processes that objects go through, even ones that words are propelled through.

And so I wanted to make a piece of art about the word substance, but wanted to include my interest in Etymology as a process, within the artwork whilst also skewing  the viewer’s perceptions and understanding, whilst subverting their tacit knowledge. But the question for me was how to do that using ‘substance’, as a framework. This is where I struck upon the idea that the understanding would be about a substance that is used and under appreciated daily. So I decided to engage with a material. The question was which?

Firstly I wanted to make things out of cocaine, which was one of the dictionary definitions for substance abuse, but it seemed too obvious… So, eventually, I decided to create an object out of paper that would stand up on its own tensile strength. Its own constitution.

I wanted the object to be amusing, stupid, and useless because the art piece could not function. But is representative of that object. Just like a word…

I am constantly blathering on about the framework for art making and appreciation. Therefore It made sense for the object to critique the artworld in some fashion. This is where I realised that a beautifully simple display case would fit the bill.

It was simply made from a single sheet of paper, that measured 150 cm by 300cm I then cut out spaces for the legs and all the tabs, so that it could be securely held together. The 1^st attempt used 120 gsm paper, which fell in on itself so, the 2^nd attempt used 200 gsm paper which held up for the two weeks of the show.