THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF OUR ESSENTIAL BEING BY DEATH
2009
Steel, lacquer, wax, polystyrene, perspex, tubes, cables, glass tanks, de-ionised dyed water, beeswax, paint, broken security glass, various found objects, various fasteners
220 x 220 x 220 cm
2009
Steel, resin
225 x 103 cm
2009
Steel, leather jacket, foam, resin, wood, castors
162 x 45.7 x 45.7 cm
On The The Indestructibility of our Essential Being by Death, is Schopenhauer’s essay on the blind struggle of human existence against a godless, meaningless world. It is severe but also satirical. The work echoes Schopenhauer’s pessimism and argues that existence is an elusive fountain of endless suffering. The white dyed water pours endlessly over the discarded remnants of youth, a leather jacket, boots, a glove, a drain pipe, a broken bit of safety glass and an ominous floating moon.
It is a contemporary allegory of wasted youth, an allegory of the artist’s youth, and exists in close connection to previous fountain pieces such as Hoodie, 2006. The idea was to present a science fiction world that lived in-between states, solid, liquid, and gas. A self-contained, spirit world held together by wisps of smoke. It incorporated theatrical elements such as a fountain, glass tank, smoke and wax in a monochrome philosophical tableau. It takes many of its tropes from Duchamp’s Étant donnés, also known as The Waterfall.
The cube installation fitted precisely into the gallery space leaving only 20cm between the work and the gallery walls. It is modelled on a street in Hackney famous as a film location. The area is at the end of Fleet Street Hill off Brick Lane.
