Theodor Adorno once said that ‘without the notion of an unfettered life, freed from death, the idea of utopia, of the utopia, cannot even be thought at all.’ If this is correct it lends a terrible irony to the fact that Man’s attempts to create ideal conditions for himself are so often mapped out through trails of carnage and destruction.
Reflection is a key word in my lexicon, as it serves to indicate both the means and the ends of artistic endeavor. The viewer is not simply invited but compelled, by use of reflective surfaces, to interrogate their own position vis-a-vis the artwork, and, by extension, vis-a-vis history and culture. By considering the breakdown of the utopian imaginary, the work locates and interrogates the limits of human rationality.
