Book of Tea
An Unknown Duration of Time in 2020
Stemming from a period of introspection during the 2020 Covid-19 lockdowns, this project started with a rummage through my parents stash of individualy wrapped teabags collected from airports, hotels, and rest-stops.
As the days began to meld together, the only way to tell them apart would be the new type of tea that I found in the cramped plastic container that housed our happened upon tea collection. At precisely 16:07 pm I would begin the process of selecting my tea. At 16:09 pm, I woud boil the water. And, at 16:11 I would begin brewing my tea. All leading me to be sitting down at 16:15 pm (or what I assume must’ve been 16:15 pm, since that is when I had my tea, thus, if I was drinking tea, it was 16:15 pm) to begin drinking my tea. Of course, the process of drinking tea requires the patience to wait for one’s tea to cool to the appropriate temperature. It was within this waiting that I began to admire the wrapping of the teabag, and how I’d so haphazardly opened it. I’m not sure at what point in this ritual did I decide to keep these teabags, but they became a marker of sorts of the days passed. Like notches on a piece of driftwood for the marooned survivors of a shipwreck.
It was only in examining the book quite some time later did I realise that I’d created a clock. A means by which I’d measured the passing of time. Proof of the passage of time, at least for as long as I drink tea.
︎ 148 x 210 mm
︎ 16 pages
︎ 2020
︎ softcover, saddlestitch
