#418 End To War

I made two imprints of my rear end to express my contempt for weapons, militarism and war. It is also a pledge for non-violence. If there were no soldiers, there would be no war. To simply sit down may be the most forceful weapon.

In times of turbulence, the willingness to take up arms grows for states and individuals both. It frightens me. It is easy to be a pacifist in peacetime, but it is even more important to stand up against violence as a solution to conflict when it is presented as the only option. Propaganda seeps into private and public conversations. This work is not a call for surrender but an exploration of the possibility of denouncing the ideological conditions for war, refusing to cooperate in its activation and avoiding being controlled by power. To not act is sometimes an act in itself.

This work is part of the Precari series. Precari is Latin for begging, praying or wishing. It is related to the word precarious which means dependent on uncertain conditions. The series is about the body's vulnerability, and its simultaneous ability to be a tool for change. The works have a performative character with bodily imprints in the wet filler.

Res Ipsa is a compilation of works made by an act shaping the filler once it is prepared inside the frame. The works thus function as a recording device and give a statement of the event taking place while the filler was still wet.

Res Ipsa is Latin for "the thing itself" and is part of the juridical term "Res ipsa loquitur" (the thing speaks for itself), used when an injury or accident in itself clearly shows who is responsible, such as an instrument left inside a body after surgery.