#111 Distal Subject

Distal means situated away from the point of attachment. Science of perception uses the term distal stimuli for objects and events out in the world about you. This work deals with the inaccessibility of reality, and in the same time our interdependency with it.

 

The work is a conceptual self portrait. The measures of the paintings is based on the actual measures of my body - height, width and depth.

 

The vertical painting on the wall indicates the space my body occupies in the visual field of others. The horisontal painting on the floor indicates the space my body occupies on the surface of the earth. The opposite would apply if my body were horisontal instead of vertical. As in when I´m dead or sleeping. The work deals with the relation between psychical and psychological space, and thus relates to the debate about nationality in the light of displacement and refugees.

 

The placing of the work could reference to a body standing in front of a mirror. But both works are monochrome - empty. This, and the division of the piece in two parts, as in a split self portrait, also relates the work to the theories of Lacan, in his concept of the barred subject $ and the mirror stage, which according to Lacan is crucial to the forming of the subject, the self-conscious individual.

Template is an array of works made by using pieces of wooden plates as templates. They function a bit as a mould or matrix for the finished work. The plates are attached inside the frame and after the first layer of filler had dried they are removed. The remaining empty spaces are filled with filler of a different colour.

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