made, unmade was a 16-screen video installation by artist Julie Brook, documenting the creation of sculptural works in a succession of uninhabited and remote landscapes in Libya and Namibia. Each of the sculptures was temporal, ephemeral and unearthly, made of the fabric of the earth itself.
During 2008 and 2009, Brook travelled and worked in the black volcanic desert in central Libya and in the Jebel Acacus mountains in South West Libya. This led to further journeys in 2011 and 2012 to the semi-desert of North West Namibia. In these remote regions, Brook forged a series of sculptures from the landscape. Light and shadow are expressed in this transient works, which change according to the light and time of day. Brook has meticulously, and sometime very crudely, documented the transitions, as well as the back-breaking work involved in constructing her pieces. The result is a series of mesmerising films: sometimes just dust fills the screens, or the haze of heat as it burns off the desert floor. These are essentially existential works as a lone figure comes to terms with their place in the world. The films are like messages from the front. The lack of artifice and self-consciousness transforms these pieces into a renewed expression of the work itself.
