Keith Lovegrove

Born in Khartoum, Sudan in 1957.
Lives and works in the UK.

Roadworks

A subject beset by contradictions and parallels - we feel a sense of loss, a pang of guilt. And for some, road kill is simply dead vermin - that's life.

The animal is in the wrong place at the wrong time. A consequence of converging elements of moment, place, vehicle and animal result in accident. The tarmac is the canvas. The carcass is the medium. And the driver is the unwitting and sometimes witting artist - the wielder of a deadly paintbrush.

The medium of feathers, fur, flesh, bone, teeth, beak, feet, intestines and blood replace tubes of oil paint. The life force is spilled onto the canvas. The tarmac as the butcher's block, as the post-mortem table.

Time takes over: the still corpse attracts scavengers and carrion crows. Flies and burying beetles are drawn to pungent compounds of cadaverine and putrescine as the proteins begin to break down. Maggots and bacteria recycle the remains and the weather returns the road surface to its former state. And perhaps that exact spot will be the scene of further happenstance.

The Roadworks project began in 2007 and is an ongoing visual record. There are currently around 60 images in the collection.

Sacré-Coeur, Damascus
Swinley Primary, UK
Stubbington House, UK
Lord Wandsworth College, UK
West Sussex College of Design, UK
Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, UK