‘Nothing is small in science and in nature, the least may here lead to the greatest;

One hundred thousand grains of sand. counted.
By an artist.

I embarked on this task as part of the three month residency at Art Space Tetra.

Why? I hear you ask...


Mathematically, one hundred thousand grains of sand can be calculated using a formula based upon weight. This calculation could be represented using weighing scales and would take a matter of minutes. But can there be value in physically counting one hundred thousand grains of sand? What can be ‘learnt’ from engaging with the material? How far can our understanding be pushed by the physicality and concentration required of such a laborious process?

The project investigated the problematic nature of understanding space and time - represented through the materiality of sand, and the counting process - but also the nature of what we choose to perceive as truths and untruths within our environmental surroundings. Specifically, I am asking what we demand from investigation and process. In artistic practice what significance can be invested in notions of classification and quantifiable results?

What kinds of dialogue could be presented to an audience by investigations from both scientific and artistic methodologies? Can we truly understand one hundred thousand grains of sand as a mass or as a numerical total, or do we need to comprehend each and every grain in order to digest space in its entirety? By embarking on such an astronomical task, I not only tried to begin to comprehend space, but also to question the very foundations of trust within investigation, be it artistic, mathematical or scientific.

What evidence is required to justify the spectator’s trust? Is the presence of the evidence of the approaches even required? In the tradition of a ready-made, perhaps a hundred thousand grains of sand simply is because an artist claims it to be.

The relationship between the two processes addresses the elasticity of the meaning of the number ‘one hundred thousand’. In scientific calculations, it can be a small number, yet in other circumstances is also unfathomable volume. The same can be said for the artistic engagement with the meaning invested in this number: it is an onerous and intimate engagement. The meaning of the number shifts depending on perspective borne from process: grain number one hundred thousand is invested with achievement and completion; through a purely mathematical calculation this final grain does not exist except in abstraction.