#272 Hangman

The oak bars should be installed aligned with the bottom of the frame at 15mm distance from the edges.

As the title implies, this work shows a game of Hangman. The oak bars on the sides signify missing letters. There are several possible solutions, but it's one that is of particular interest. Life is a journey from the cradle to the grave, and in between, we eat and play.
 
In therapy, finding the hidden truth means formulating the words to express repressed trauma or emotions. This process is very much connected to the body. Thus, language and matter are profoundly related. Yet, words have no intrinsic relation to what they signify; the gap is unbridgeable. The two dimensions are forever divided. It is not the words themselves that hold the key. It is the use of language that might be healing - the mapping of the uncharted terrain that is our subconscious. But it must be allowed to ask that even if this colonisation of language into our psyche might relieve strain and anxiety, does it necessarily provide meaning and happiness? Using language is a tool for communication with others and with ourselves and thus brings us closer, but it might be argued that it creates the very divide we desire to bridge.

To the mind, a word is always also an image. In that sense, understanding words function no different than normal perception. When we see, images are constructed inside the mind. We never perceive reality objectively or in itself. Perception is an interpretation and thus consist of language, in the same manner as understanding words.
However, to use language, we have to speak or write it. We have to realize it. Nothing ever communicates without being inscribed into a matter of some sort. But how words are inserted into reality affects how we perceive them. Thus reality itself seeps into language. There exists no clear or unmediated communication. Matter adds to the message. Because which matter we choose to communicate through, and how we shape it, reflects on who we are, it can reveal unconscious or hidden meanings.
 
Humans inscribed the first written words in stone or clay. One of the purposes was to save them for the future, to protect them from the volatility of time. To speak, or to write, is always to some extent, an act of power. The receiver must initially submit his or her attention to the message. No matter how insignificant, its meaning will always in some way change the receiver forever.

There is a constant tension between language and reality as matter. The human subject is defined by an individual will, as opposed to the strict causality of nature. This will strive to be expressed through language. Maybe self-awareness is a result of language at use. Language as a way for the ego to invent itself, to inscribe itself into the world. It is no coincident that many of the first examples of texts are curses, prayers, laws or inventories — different ways of trying to influence and master reality.

Tablet series is part of Template, a compilation of works made by using pieces of wooden plates as templates. They function as a mould or matrix for the finished work.

Reminiscent of Richard Serra's Verb List I try to use simple and clearly defined actions to shape the filler in my works. This method ensures there is always non-cognitive aspects of the production process.