Date: 2010

Medium: Performance with installation

Wooden construction; 23 ct gold leaf; honey and text; crows feathers;  rope; stainless steel bowls with honey and extra virgin olive oil; flour; found objects; water.

Venue: De Zwarte Ruiter, Rotterdam, 4 June 2010

(All photographs by Hans Wilschut unless otherwise noted)

 

 

This artwork explores the concept of a figurehead through a combination of text, action and gesture. A figurehead is commonly defined as the head of an organization (such as the state, a corporation and so on) that functions largely as a symbolic figure of power. Nonetheless the term is actually derived from the practice of placing a carved or cast sculpture placed over the cutwater of a ship.

With the help of De Zwarte Ruiter I constructed a space in the entrance of the gallery whereby its corner would suggest something like the prow of a ship. For the performance I would transform myself  into the figurehead.  In turn, the audience were transformed into passengers aboard the vessel for the duration of the performance. I also wrote three fictional texts in which figurehead speaks of its experiences whilst at sea. In these texts the figurehead entered into conversation with two other entities aboard the ship that may also be said to look into the horizon whilst at crossing the oceans: the captain and the person manning the crows nest.

For the performance itself I repeated a sequence of events three times: First I washed my hands with water and salt. I then climbed the stairs towards the prow, collecting honey and oil in each hand that I would siphon of into a metal container on board the small platform. During this process I would recite excerpts from the texts that I had written on the wall covered in honey and gold leaf. The honey and oil would become mixed and flow through a hole in the platform onto the large rope construction hanging directly below. Eventually the oil and honey started spreading on the gallery floor.

Each sequence of actions took approximately 5 minutes to complete.

The work is part of a series of new projects all focused on exploring the history, mythology and impact of the discovery of gold in the ‘new world’ and the hunt for El Dorado. Also see the works ‘ProSpecter’, ‘Blood Rites’ and ‘Challenging Mud (After Kazuo Shiraga)’.

Special thanks:
Tijs Bakker
Judith Vogt
Hans Wilschut
Jan De bruin