#496 Balancing Act

Filler, oak panel, egg

This work features an egg placed on top of the panel in a small indentation.

The horrors of war are often described as a brutal and material reality, and the hope for a peaceful future as something fleeting, like a dream or an idea. Something to be created, as opposed to the violence that exists in the natural state. But in this work, the egg, a symbol of hope and potential, is placed outside the image and, thus, in my interpretation, outside the realm of language. The pointed shape, reminiscent of a missile or a bullet, dominates the pictorial field and is expressed as a sign. Perhaps hope instead belongs to materiality, involuntarily in the body, even if only as a struggle for survival. And violence, on the other hand, is an act of language, something that is consciously chosen.