Brake Dust 2020

Brake Dust 

Plaster Casts measuring 16cm w x 41cm l & 20cm w x 36cm l 

Brake Dust explores the idea of what Air Pollution might look like if it were imagined as a sculptural object. This is the first in a series of works using crystallography to imagine the unimaginable and indecipherable. The individual casts are scaled-up models of the crystal magnetite, which is an iron ore. 
Brake Dust is made up of many nano particles that are released into the air every time someone brakes their car. Traffic pollution particles can contain many thousands of materials, including carbon, hydrocarbons and bacterial toxins. But because of the materials that modern brakes are made of, the dust that wears from them is highly metallic – including many types of metal, such as iron, copper, titanium and magnesium that studies have shown cause stress and harm to human cells. 
I wanted to visualize what these nano particles would look like if I scaled them up. I am inspired by Plato here in an attempt to make visible the invisible. 

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Kathryn Maguire