All I could do was sit and collect dust

Jonathan Mayhew

All I could do was sit and collect dust, 2020

Sculpture made from the artist’s hair, dust and detritus

‘It all started with nothing. I sat and thought about all the things that surrounded me, trapped by the ambient dread that has haunted us all. Usually you don’t spend so much time in your room, it’s a place to rest and keep things - clothing, books and trinkets - the things of everyday life, parts of who you are. Dust also collects here too, it’s part of us, dead skin cells and hairs. Hair follicles contain our DNA, which hold all the information about us, a kind of digital dust. I chose to take the nothing; collecting all the forgotten dust and detritus that surrounded me – my hair with its DNA, dust from items in my room – and form a self-portrait, one that captures how I felt during the first lockdown; when nothing was possible.’

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