#575 Privilege
64x84 cm | Filler, pine panel
About
The words in the image are synonyms I found in a dictionary for the word NEUTRAL.
Growing up in Sweden in the seventies and eighties, neutrality was an important and highly valued concept. Even though there were doubts about the morality of Sweden’s position during the Second World War, the principles behind that stance were firmly rooted in the fabric of society. In an individualistic culture, the notion that there are always many sides to any conflict—and that compromise is preferable to confrontation—was dogma.
Later, I learned that this position is largely connected to privilege. If one looks carefully and examines the facts, many—if not most—conflicts are expressions of oppression, in which the powerful impose their will on the powerless. To claim neutrality in such circumstances is morally dubious, since even the possibility of doing so places you on the side of the oppressor.
Furthermore, we are all entangled in power structures that connect everyone and everything. This is even more evident in today’s global economies and systems of digital mass communication. To some extent, there is no neutral position—and perhaps there never was. Our duty in these circumstances is to educate ourselves and then, at the very least, to express our opinions.See a work-in-progress video here and a presentation video here.
Tablet
Perception is an interpretation and thus consists of language in the same manner as understanding words. To the mind, a word is always also an image. In that sense, understanding words function no differently than normal perception. When we see, images are constructed inside the mind. We never perceive reality objectively or in itself.
However, to use language, we have to speak or write it. We have to realise 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 the 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 their 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 use. Language as a way for the ego to invent itself, to inscribe itself into the world. It is no coincidence that many of the first examples of texts are curses, prayers, laws, or inventories — different ways of trying to influence and master reality.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.
