The installation Personal Values consists of two adjacent spaces that illuminate and resonate with each other in a kind of distorted reflection. It is a dual, non-hierarchical, space, at once continuous and bidirectional. Despite the differences between them, the two spaces have a common formal theme. Scattered along them are sculptural objects and architectural elements that draw their inspiration from different spheres – be it private, public, religious, secular, ancient, or contemporary. All these flow from one space to the next, reappearing in various guises and arrangements. Collectively, they form a transformative space that addresses the question of continued human existence after death and present an interpretive representation of “this world” and “the afterlife.” However, the two spaces are fundamentally different. One is organized around altar-like stages, and is formal and functional, of a cultic or worshipping nature, with each element having a clear and predetermined role. The second space is multifocal, free of any overarching purpose, and items are scattered about in it as though in the aftermath of a game.
The installation Personal Values borrows its name from René Magritte’s painting of the same name (1952), which depicts a collection of objects in a room whose walls are painted sky blue with scattered clouds. The scale of objects in the painting is unusual, and the sky-like walls conflates interior and exterior. The installation, like the painting, is of a surreal, enigmatic, and encoded nature, and engages with the symbolic and sentimental meanings of objects. It suggests other values, both visible and concealed, that are inherent in every object. An object – be it organic, man-made, or industrial – is also a symbol of a place or ideology, subject to interpretation, and a mark of economic, social, and cultural values.
The need to experience reality and life as unending is not unique to the notion of the afterlife, but also pertains to the human aspiration for a flexible existence, the ability to change, be changed, and replicate. The duality – of space and of objects – is a kind of “second chance,” akin to multi-directional evolution. It hints at the possibility of ever more spaces, in countless variations.
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