MAIN CHARACTER ENERGY is the title of a new suite of engraved marble works that brings together my ongoing interest in self-portraiture and the strange, poetic absurdity of internet language. The phrase itself, plucked from online vernacular, perfectly encapsulates the mix of irony and self-obsession that runs through my practice.

The “inspo” for these works came during a recent visit to Rome, where the quiet charm of the engraved tablets outside Santa Maria in Trastevere caught me off guard. Unlike the grandeur of Rome’s basilicas and monuments, these modest memorials, simple slabs carved with just a few details of a life: name, age, occupation; speak with an unfiltered honesty. Scattered across the city, they feel like accidental poetry; humble tributes that carry an emotional weight far greater than their scale.

Using discarded stone fragments salvaged from workshop skips, my works honour overlooked materials and give value to what is often cast aside. Like their Roman ancestors, they are hand-engraved, not with classical virtues, but with the ephemera of now: daily routines, personal asides, fragments of digital chatter, memes, and the oddly affecting language of 'brain rot'

Some tablets include images of local wildlife, moments of encounter and quiet awe; set against the background hum of environmental loss. Arranged in a loose, fragmented formation, the works mimic the structure of a tapestry, with each slab acting like a thread; discrete yet connected. This form mirrors the layered, patchwork quality of my practice, where humour, memory, melancholy, and the everyday collide. MAIN CHARACTER ENERGY turns fleeting moments into permanent record, capturing the scrollable in stone, an ironic monument to the mess, magic and meaning of contemporary life.

Adrienne Doig August 2025

Acknowledgements
Thanks to
Peter Spilsbury
RMS Marble and Natural Stone, Banksmeadow
MarmOnyx Stone, Marrickville
Phil Spark, Spark Metal
Photography Jenni Carter

adriennedoig@gmail.com