Lucinda Burgess

India Red 192 – Dissolution (2026) was developed during Lucinda Burgess’s residency at The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation. The work consists of seven vertical strips of paper coated with wax pencil in the colour India Red 192, each submerged in Atlantic seawater and left exposed to salt, humidity, and time. Through this process, Burgess allows environmental forces to act directly upon the surface. Salt crystals become embedded within the fibres of the paper, while the wax pigment accumulates in granular deposits. The colour, initially identified through the precise label India Red 192, shifts subtly across the seven elements as the material responds to immersion, absorption, drying, and crystallisation. The measured vertical structure remains intact, yet the surface records the effects of exposure, erosion, and gradual transformation. The work is presented within an archival frame containing silica, stabilising the salt residues that remain within the paper. This gesture introduces a deliberate tension between dissolution and preservation. The crystalline traces of the sea are held in suspension, fixed at a moment when processes of change have been temporarily arrested. Within Burgess’s practice, India Red 192 – Dissolution extends an ongoing investigation into material transformation and environmental agency. Colour, surface, and structure remain central concerns, yet the work also foregrounds the role of external conditions in shaping the final form. The composition becomes a record of encounter between intention and exposure, where time, atmosphere, and material sensitivity operate as quiet collaborators in the making of the work.