It all started with the question, “What is infinity?” Which evolved into a process of making one million marks – a full year of work for artist, Chauncey Flay.
Using handmade paint from grinding stone into pigment, the mark-making itself began to deconstruct time, testing Flay’s physical and mental stamina alongside notions of how we might value labour in artistic practise.
There are one hundred stones (with provenance of both place and time), all from the Te Wai Pounamu, and each shaped, crafted into form and sold with a bound book of individual marks. There is limestone from the earthquake damaged Chch Cathedral, and stones donated by the late sculptor, John Edgar.
The hundreds of pages of mark-making bound into one hundred books deliberately references the time-based practices of On Kawara, Agnes Martin and Roman Opalka. But the wonderful range of colours and particular materiality of South Island stone is also beautifully showcased.
These books made from locally sourced stone, pigment and paper, all in custom-made boxes with their relevant stone, are delightfully referential and unexpectedly sculptural. Together, they constitute Chauncey Flay’s One Million Mark project.
