#425-26 A Rock And A Hard Place

64x84 cm each, installation dimensions variable | Filler, oak panel, oak frame

I did these works by pressing two panels of filler against each other, with a pile of 99 stones between them.

The expression "Between a rock and a hard place" means having only bad choices at hand. It originated after a failed mining strike in Arizona in the early 1900s. Workers were forced to choose between poorly paid and dangerous work down in the mines on one side or unemployment and poverty on the other. The material conditions may appear steadfast, but the struggle over these drives history forward. A fight for the necessities of life but also a battle over language. About what is allowed to be described, considered possible and thus part of what is or can become real. Language becomes actual in the encounter between people. It must be spoken to come into being.

But man is also always solitary. Words leave us and attach themselves to physical matter where someone else hopefully picks them up. Like a message in a bottle. We lay down tight to the ground because we desire to be a part of it. Reach out of ourselves. Language embraces objects from all sides. But matter is relentless. Humans, in our subjective position, can never become united with material reality no matter how much we push ourselves against it. Only when we die, do we become dust.