This work by Cameron Welch (b. 1990, USA) mobilizes the ancient technique of mosaic to manifests an intertextual visual space that bridges past and present, as well as figuration and abstraction. Welch employs the materials and processes of his medium to develop narratives relating to his biracial identity and his experiences being raised by a single mother in the Midwestern United States.

Welch’s compositions are embedded with references to his personal history and memories, and to contemporary culture. The content within the work is heavily abstracted, yet full of drama, emotion, and myth. The works tend to be large-scale, consisting of thousands of hand-cut, inlaid pieces of glass and stone.

Welch is interested in the ways mosaic and collage are material manifestations of intertextuality. The physical aspects of the work evoke ancient art history, while the subject matter introduces figures and stories that are completely absent from these types of works when viewed in institutional settings, like museums or art history books. Welch refers to the colliding contexts he opens up in the work as a kind of “infiltration.”