MITCH CAIRNS
Cigarette cm
22 Jan 2014—08 Feb 2014

Cigarette cm. (noun)

The Cigarette cm is a somewhat obsolete and inaccurate unit of measurement useful for quantifying both time and space in a variety of ways.

1.     Time is measured by the diminishing size of the cigarette (that is, the remaining cgcms). The total cgcm has a direct correlation with the frequency and force of each inhalation. On average, each inhalation is equivalent to 1cgcm.

2.      Each exhalation has an inverse equivalent – as 1 cgcm vanishes it is replaced by a billow of grey plume; a more expansive, gaseous and extroverted manifestation of 1 cgcm. This grey plume, being adaptive to permeable surfaces (walls, skin, ceilings and furniture), is evidenced here supporting the works as an automatic painting of sorts.

3.     1 packet of cigarette papers is equal to a finite number of cgcms – being a ‘consumable’ the total cgcms will diminish over time (months, weeks, days, an evening).

4.     As the smoker smokes each cgcm, we reveal a process of reversal, a manual & repetitious act. Images and texts were once subject to such a process during the late nineteenth century.

5.     As a printing process imbues paper with visual information, the smoking process erases the paper itself, or rather transforms its form so that it may be distributed throughout the atmosphere. This is not dissimilar to how a newspaper enters circulation, nor dissimilar to the passé medium of a fine art print.