All the works of the ‘bind/ontbind’ Series attempt to collapse the dichotomy inherent in their title… In Afrikaans to ‘bind’ means “to tie up; to fasten; cement; hold; trammel; bind…bound by; commit (to the conditions)…linkage; fixation; weave (patterns)…to connect”. Conversely, the word ‘ontbind’ means to “untie; undo; break up; disband; dissolve; decompose; decay; putrify; disintegrate; analyze; decompound; resolve (forces); dissociate; disconnect; …disintegration; disestablishment; dissolution; …annulment”
- Photo credit: Nico Anklam
Bind/Ontbind 2
2003
Performance at the Venice Biennale 2003 as part of the group exhibition ‘Recycling the future:viveravenezia2′ curated by Angela Vetesse
Duration approx 30 minutes
The works in this series are all metaphors for the complex interrelationship between these two seemingly oppositional forces – everything we are and we everything we know is subject to their constant re-vision, re-articulation and re-formation. Albert Einstein said that the only constant force in the universe is change. However, I would add that, change is in itself chaotic. It has no substance and cannot be known.
Photo credit: Nico Anklam
Bind/Ontbind Series 3
2003
Public performance, Venice (Italy)
Duration approx 30 minutes
Thus everything is subject to change including our (re) interpretations of its meaning. In fact, there is the paradox: as with all things, we can only speak about it in metaphors – in order to render it knowledgeable we have to position words/concepts ‘in its stead’, to ‘represent’ it i.e. ‘bind/ontbind’. For me, things are not either in the process of ‘binding’ or of ‘un-binding’ alone, they are simultaneously doing both.
Bind/Ontind 1
Single Channel Video (this copy a preview only)
Duration: 2min36sec
“We may attempt to contain this ongoing process of transformation (or of expansion and retraction) within complex systems of knowledge – as various historical epistemologies, ontologies and cosmologies have attempted to do before – but we cannot ever hope to contain it. If this is the ‘grand narrative’ that defines human existence, it is not grand at all: neither its cause nor its effect will ever be ours for the taking. As an artist, all I wish to do is to draw attention to this fact”. (Interview with the artist/curator Alex Zika for the show “Agora” held in London at the Transition Gallery, 2004).
Selection from ‘The Ties That Bind’ (Bind/Ontbind Series)
2003
Series of 10 Archival prints each 120cm x 80cm
Photographic Credit: Garreth Fradgley
