This work documents a personal trauma – the estrangement of the artist and her mother – and also a collectively experienced one, the Ōtautahi Christchurch earthquake of 2011. Charlotte Watson used data recorded on 22 February and during the twenty-eight subsequent aftershocks registering over 5.0 on the Richter scale. The Y-axis of her drawing indicates the intensity of the aftershocks, while the X-axis is based on Watson’s emotions and memories. “The quake and subsequent disruption is a metaphor for the rupture and grief in relationship with my mother”, she has said. “The more severe the quake/rupture, the longer the ‘residue’.”

(Die Cuts and Derivations, 11 March – 2 July 2023)