Reifenstein, Tilo (2026) Erosion, Sediment, Fragment: Tracing Layers in Moyra Davey’s Writing and Photographs. In: Arbex-Enrico, Márcia, D'Angelo, Biagio, Figueiredo, Camila Augusta Pires de, Otto, Georg and Vieira, Miriam De Paiva, (eds.) An Archaeology of Text and Image / Une archéologie du texte et de l'image. Word and Image Interactions (12). Leiden; Boston, Brill, pp. 121-133 (In Press)

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Abstract

The chapter explores Moyra Davey’s photographic work <i>Copperheads</i> in relation to the artist’s writing. Drawing on a range of art-historical and literary scholarship that addresses Davey’s practice as well as Derrida’s writing on the letter and Lacoue-Labarthe and Nancy’s notion of the fragment, the essay motivates the terminology of sedimentation and erosion to show their co-dependency. A myriad of absent hands seen to be fumbling for change emerges in the discussion through the sedimentary and erosive marks they leave on pennies. <i>Copperheads</i> thus emerges as a critique of extractive capitalism that erodes its human and planetary “resources.”

Keywords: Moyra Davey – Copperheads – Walter Benjamin – Jacques Derrida – Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe – Jean-Luc Nancy – fragment – erosion – photography – writing

Item Type:	Book Section
Status:	In Press
DOI:	10.1163/9789004760493-011
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR > N0061-72 Theory. Philosophy. Aesthetics of the visual arts P Language and Literature > PS American literature T Technology > TR Photography
School/Department:	School of the Arts
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/14534

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