DISTRESS PURCHASE

2025

Palmer Gallery,  London

Distress Purchase is a large-scale installation comprising two ten-metre lengths of tyre tread—a material used to re-manufacture worn HGV tyres. Arranged in looping, serpentine-like forms, the sculpture evokes the thousands of motorway miles that serve as arteries of trade, linking goods with global distribution networks. An accompanying sound piece, produced with sound designer Alex Batchelor, layers recordings of re-tread machinery; truck engines; a container ship engine; tyre testing facilities, and conveyor belts to conjure sprawling, typically unseen journeys commodities make across land and sea.

The term “distress purchase” refers to items acquired out of urgent necessity rather than desire—like tyres, bought to replace those worn by continual use. Fragments of blown-out tyres litter motorway lay-bys, material evidence of the strain placed on the UK’s logistical infrastructure. Through undulating forms, I draw attention to these overlooked systems, as well as the histories embedded in industrial materials—from rubber tapping and oil extraction to the troubling recent discovery of airborne and waterborne toxins released through tyre wear. The work considers the pervasive yet rarely seen materials and objects embedded within global trade networks, often taken for granted but which crucially underpin modern life.


DISTRESS PURCHASE
Rubber tyre tread, steel and 3 channel sound installation (44:40mins)
205 x 240 x 250cm
Sound design with Alex Batchelor



Distress Purchase 02
2025
Waste rubber tyre tread and steel
25 x 25 x 6cm



Distress Purchase
2025
Embossing on paper (framed)
82 x 65cm
Edition of 10


Photo: Gillies Adamson Semple