THE SPECTACLE
Shown at group exhibition STUDI 2016 - festival of exhibitions in Artists' studios Milan, Italy
Installation - Bread crusts, Sunglass Lens, iPad Air, 3 min video.
25 cubes of bread were arranged in the pattern of a 5x5 magic square on the paving of the Palazzo di Duomo, Milan. The video of the process of the birds consuming the bread was exhibited with a sunglass lens and two of the empty crusts of bread that remained and
A spectacle could be described as a public show or display, a visually striking performance - and one watching the spectacle is of course the spectator. Let's assume that the spectator knows they are watching the spectacle, and that it is something they don't want to do. Why would they continue to watch? The act of watching is generally fairly innocuous but if we change this watching to being seduced, the acceptance of this act takes on a different weight. Let's say the spectator is being seduced by the spectacle and let's add that the spectator knows they are being seduced by the spectacle. Why then, if one is fully aware of being seduced, would one continue to accept this, and furthermore, why would one not want to move out of this role of the seducee? The existentialist philosophers Sartre and De Beauvoir describe this phenomenon as 'Bad Faith' - where a human being seduced by societal forces adopts false values and disowns their own innate freedom to act authentically. They claim that individuals are always free to make choices regardless of the situation, and it is only in assuming the social roles and value systems external to one’s true nature that one can pretend that these possibilities are denied, essentially subordinating oneself so as to be protected from being morally accountable.
THE SPECTACLE Photographic print on Hahnemühle photo paper 420mmx594mm
