In Layers of Time, Idris Khan continues his philosophical investigation of time and memory. His techniques of layering are in keeping with his preoccupation with the accumulation of experience and his wish to explore the process of creation, erasure, tracing and their effects on human consciousness.

For his eight-metre high public sculpture in Southwark, Khan used “the physicality of a photograph to show time”. A monument to the 65,000 images the artist had taken on his phone over five years, the idea behind it, is also present in Layers of Time. “Cameras have replaced our eyes; we want to photograph everything before we even see it” comments Khan. In an age of obsessive mass-image-making, the artist’s sculpture forces us to look and reflect, and in the context of a project such as Cure3, the act of monumentalizing memories and time takes on a whole new layer of meaning.