Porcelain matchsticks, 2018 - ongoing

Since July 2018, every night at the end of the day, Xenia has been making a matchstick out of porcelain. These matchsticks are continuously appearing one a day. Then she fires the raw porcelain in the kiln, dates them, and stores the matchsticks that have turned to stone in old matchboxes. The main attempt of this collection is to transform real time into a physical dimension in the form of spatial archiving, to grasp and measure the abstract passage of time in an absolute tangible existence.

We see colours, hear sounds and feel textures. The perception of time is not associated with any sense. We do not see, hear or touch the passing time; only the emotional perception persists. Time exists in the ultimate public domain and is the only substance that is universal to all living beings. Every day is a day we all share, a day in which our personal events and experiences take place and sometimes intersect. This is Xenia's daily ritual and commitment to represent the irreversibility and passage of time in material matter, and she signals this every day she lives. Each day comes closer to the previous one and almost everything - fears, failures, expectations - is lost in the perspective of finitude and only what is important remains.

There are more than 2000 porcelain matchsticks in this archive of time. This artwork was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Art Summer Exhibition in 2020 and is included in the Royal College of Art's heritage of alumni all-time works of art.

Full archive can be found on matches.busalova.com

Price per one matchstick is £350 (any date) plus one condition.

Please contact +44 (0) 7453849483