THE SPECTACLE
Bread crusts, Sunglass Lens, iPad Air, 3 min video. Dimensions Variable.
25 cubes of bread were arranged in the pattern of a 5x5 magic square on the paving of the Palazzo di Duomo, Milan. The pigeons consumed the bread and flew away. The video of the process of the birds consuming the bread was shown with two of the empty crusts of bread that remained and the lens from a pair of glasses.
A spectacle is a public show or display, a visually striking performance. In watching this spectacle you are the spectator. Let's assume that the spectator knows he is watching the spectacle, and in fact that this is something he doesn't want to do. Doesn’t it pose the question of why he continues to watch? Watching is a fairly innocuous act - it is not a verb heavy with meaning or emotional import necessarily. So - I watch the spectacle, so what?
If I use the verb seduce however, the act and the acceptance of the act take on a different weight. Let's say the spectator is seduced by the spectacle. Let's add that the spectator knows he is being seduced by the spectacle. This poses an interesting question as to why, if one is fully aware of being seduced, one continues to accept this, and furthermore, why one may not want to move out of this role of the seducee.
The philosophers Sartre and De Beauvoir describe the phenomenon where a human being under pressure from societal forces adopts false values and disowns his/her innate freedom to act authentically. They claimed that individuals are always free to make choices regardless of the situation, and it is only in assuming 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.
watch the video here: https://myvanwygibson.com/laviemodedemploi
Unique Photographic print on Hahnemühle photo paper documenting the structure 'The spectacle' 420mmx594mm
