Salvage - Prison Cove, 2025 by Lucinda Burgess

Salvage – Prison Cove is a drawing made directly onto packaging recovered from the Atlantic shoreline near the site of Lucinda Burgess’s recent residency in Ireland. The cardboard retains its creases, folds, and abrasions, carrying visible traces of its prior function. Rather than suppressing these marks, Burgess allows them to structure the work, treating the geometry of the found material as an active element within the composition. Graphite is applied in dense passages that respond to the resistance and irregularities of the surface. Areas of saturation emerge alongside exposed planes of worn cardboard, producing a field that oscillates between accumulation and fragility. The drawing registers the encounter between hand and material, where intention meets chance and where processes of erosion and recovery remain visible. Presented unframed, the work maintains the directness of the salvaged support. The cardboard functions simultaneously as ground, object, and record of exposure, situating the work between drawing and relief. Within Burgess’s broader practice, Salvage – Prison Cove reflects an ongoing attention to material memory and environmental influence, where surfaces become quiet witnesses to time, weather, and use.