#546 Re Public
64x84 cm | Filler, oak panel
About
This work is also part of a diptych titled Respiratory Governance. This is the inhale, where people cluster in the centre. It’s about how the shifts between liberal majority and authoritarian oligarchic rule can be viewed as a movement of breath. None of these modes of governance changes society’s foundation in the ideology of capitalism. Both claim to rule in the name of the people, but instead, they secure the rule of the few and the mighty. What is power? Power is the availability of resources. It’s a matter of economics - of money. People will only have power when it’s equally distributed. We must abolish wealth and poverty to create a truly free and democratic society.
Speaking Stones
Speaking Stones is a compilation of paintings made with imprints of ordinary stones.
I see the stone as a metaphor for popular struggle and protest. It is the closest available weapon to the powerless. Throwing stones is a symbolic form of violence. The aim is not to overpower the opponent physically. It demonstrates defiance in the face of power by expressing concretely that the premises of the situation aren't acceptable. The stone speaks but not in a language open to negotiation or dialogue. A conversation means accepting the context in which it takes place and is thus always, to a certain degree, a form of submission. The language of stones is the language of mute matter. A form of silence that nevertheless speaks clearly and directly. The stone represents the resistance in itself from a place outside of language.
The stone is an entirely exchangeable and ordinary object that exists everywhere. At the same time, each stone is unique and has its own beauty and unfathomable mystery for anyone open to seeing it. This duality fascinates me. A stone is perhaps the closest we can get to a thing-in-itself, bound as we are to language. It is sealed around itself, oblivious to the outside world. It simply exists. In a way, we can never truly understand. It is infinite in its everydayness, specific and concrete in its presence.Res Ipsa
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.