I Don’t Have Another Land is a text-based light sculpture. The piece is part of Coley’s ongoing series, its words sourced from graffiti that Coley found on a wall in Jerusalem in the early 2000s.
Nathan Coley is interested in the idea of ‘public’ space, and his practice explores the ways in which architecture becomes invested – and reinvested – with meaning. Across a range of media, Coley investigates what the built environment reveals about the people it surrounds, and how social and individual responses to it are, in turn, culturally conditioned. His work is driven by research ficused on the social aspects of our built environment and the communities and individuals who occupy it.
Coley uses the readymade to take ideas and images from the world and resituate them. He addresses the ritual forms we use to articulate our beliefs – from hand-held placards and public signage to sacred places and sanctuaries. His text works are created using pre-existing phrases from overheard conversations, song lyrics, news reports, books and other found material. In the text-based light sculpture I Don’t Have Another Land, the words of the title are sourced from graffiti that Coley found on a wall in Jerusalem in the early 2000s.
