#346-49 Small Circle Pace (Inverted)
128x168 cm (each panel 64x84 cm) | Filler, oak frames
About
I did this work by pacing a narrow circle over four panels. See a video of the whole performative production event here. When installed, the circle is inverted. This work can be installed in multiple ways. The alternative has the title Small Circle Pace (Split).
Pace
Pace is a series of works consisting of two slowly paced tracks in wet filler. The process is repeated 99 times, reminiscent of the 99% of the Occupy movement, which refers to the vast majority without capital from ownership, sometimes defined as the proletariat or the working class. The fight against oppression can be waged with major decisive blows, as well as through many small but repeated steps. The latter is expressed by the tedious work of creating a path where there is none by walking it over and over again.
Sabotage
The shoes wore to produce this work is a modern variant of clogs, made of plastic. In French, clogs are called "sabot", which is the basis for the word sabotage. Possibly because when automatic looms were introduced in France, the workers threw their shoes into them to protest the machines making them redundant. In another way, you may also call this work a sabotage (in the sense of a collage, or frottage) as it is made by clogs.
This is the shoe of the common people, the shoe of the working class. Historically made in wood for use in factories and on the fields, but today, for example, healthcare workers widely use the plastic version. It is also popular as leisurewear for the mainstream, or the so-called masses.
Res Ipsa
Res Ipsa is a compilation of works made by an act shaping the filler once it is prepared inside the frame. The works thus function as a recording device and give a statement of the event taking place while the filler was still wet.
Res Ipsa is Latin for "the thing itself" and is part of the juridical term "Res ipsa loquitur" (the thing speaks for itself), used when an injury or accident in itself clearly shows who is responsible, such as an instrument left inside a body after surgery.