Artefact

2023 11:16 min Video (Full video available upon request) Artefact is a video work created as part of David Cuesta’s Apocrypha series. Filmed in East London, the piece documents overlooked Indigenous and non-native plant species growing in urban environments near Cuesta’s studio. Contrasting this resurgent plant life with the architectural interventions of the city, the work reflects on how nature persists within, and in spite of, artificial systems. The video is devoid of human presence and features sculptural elements from the exhibition placed within abandoned or transitional cityscapes. These sculptures function as speculative artefacts—remnants from a post-human future or relics of a pre-urban past—inviting reflection on the temporal and material tensions between constructed environments and natural resilience. Rooted in the wider themes of Apocrypha, Artefact draws on Gnostic symbolism, Jungian psychoanalysis, and mystical iconography to explore dualities between nature and urbanisation, presence and absence, abstraction and embodiment. Cinematography – Manuel Vazquez, David Cuesta, Liberty Quinn Editing and Post Production – Jose Norbey Jaramillo Animation – Josue Galeano Music – Eraldo Bernocchi