Anthropocene 2021

Mishal Weston's practice zooms into the particular and peculiar aspects of the everyday, particularly that which is discarded and left for decay. Yet, Weston tends to these mundane objects as sacred relics, each offered loving wit(h)ness. By leveraging an office or photo scanner as their lens + assemblage + cyanotype, Weston surfaces the intricate details and textures of mundane items, inviting viewers to see the world through a care(full) gaze. From seashells to seeds, bones, bottle caps, feathers and detritus of the modern world, there’s nothing Weston doesn’t find excluded in the gift of their attention.

Weston’s work is a love letter to the excluded or discarded, to anything or anyone who has been cast aside or misunderstood. The generosity of Weston’s capacity to wit(h)ness goes beyond most artists, where the scattered remnants of daily existence are tended to with reverence. Part mortician, part archivist, part archaeologist, part alchemist, the care imbued in Weston’s tender cradling of fragments in passing, as kairos anoints its discovery, then catalogued in vigil scans. Some works covering entire year catalogues of noticing and gifting their attention. Rather than clocks or calendars, Weston iteratively sculpts with time.