STATEMENT
âlnfidels claim that the rule in the Library is not âsense,â but ânon-senseâ, and that "rationalityâ (even humble, pure coherence) is an almost miraculous exception. They speak, I know, of âthe feverish Library, whose random volumes constantly threaten to transmogrify into others, so that they affirm all things, deny all things, and confound and confuse all things, like some mad and hallucinating deity."Â
- The Library of Babel, Louis Borges
The ground that is once more stirring beneath our feet is a body of work that is comprised of two text works and an audio file. Contributing to a dialogue centuries old, the artworks explore notions of the subjectivity of meaning through a ânon-senseâ manner. Encapsulated by Borges and expounded on by Foucault, the idea that humans try to âtame the wild profusion of existing thingsâ inspired the work to rebel against the norm; to swim against the current. A series of experiments have been tested and applied to deconstruct the initial sense of each piece to create a new sense, a new order, a ânon-senseâ.Â
On that theme the riptide becomes a thread that ties the collection together, acting as the unpredictable but ever present substance that is subjected to change and glitch. Perhaps emotions are evoked, perhaps meanings can be derived but that is not the intention; the works carry little personal significance or value to the artist, they are merely experimental forms whereby meanings have been free to form or fail.Â
The ground that is once more stirring beneath our feet invites a questioning of the true nature of meaning and understanding; if something fails to mean anything to me, does it fail to do the same for you? It seeks to play on the notion of audience preconceptions through the visually compelling text in frames as if valuable artworks, and the story at the podium as if it was about to be read. If an audience thinks that the works are meaningful, will they automatically become more so? Or will they be confounded and confused more than ever before because of that heightened awareness of significance. The ground that is once more stirring beneath our feet lightly questions and plays as the audience engages with the works presented.
