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The work assembles two ready made objects in a new one which embody the schizophrenic disposition of a global society constituted of consumption and the opportune idea of meritocracy: a park bench laced with bird control spikes. Both are elements known from the Western public spaces. The metallic fine and sharp structure of the bird spikes is mounted in on the wooden slats where people are supposed to sit.
The park bench is the adequate artefact to the desire of recreation, it gives the occasion to calm down the haste in a big city and it ignites the idea of having a break and relaxing, chilling out, and affording a moment for oneself beyond the frenetic temper of contemporary metropolises. These benches are designated to human-beings.
In contrast, the bird control spikes are used in Western cities to ban the roosting of birds, particularly pigeons, to prevent the defecation on landmarked monuments, street lighting, public buildings or private premises.
In the Tunisian─and in the Arab imagery in general─doves are considered as a symbol for freedom and peace. For this reason the anti-roosting-appliance appeared strange to my eyes after I saw it for the first time when I came to Europe. Western democratic countries claim for human-rights and freedom to secure peace but they seem to neglect this natural right for urban doves, although the dove was already mentioned in the Old Testament where Noah released it to discover land after the Great Flood (Book of Genesis 8;11). It seemed to me unscrupulous to invent a tool that dictates pigeons or “peace doves” where to sit and to shit to stop and where not.
The combination of these two antipodes (the park bench for human-beings and the metallic spikes for birds) are build together in one and same object that embodies a basic contradiction which seem to rule the post-modern civilizations: on one hand there is the absolute urge to produce, to work, and to be efficient, and competitive—one job is not enough to survive. On the other hand we have a glut of dreams how to spent our time, a huge proposal of resorts, vacations, recreations, leisure time facilities, and wellness—in one word: a commercial based panorama of la dolce vita.
The western democratic countries, besides tourism and the recreation-industry, promises freedom as the achievement of modern times. Both promises are daily broken in the hardest ways.
The object I present is as harsh as the daily life of the majority of people living under the conditions of an accelerated everyday-life; and since the fine metallic spikes are not visible afar it is misleading as the established meritocracy. A park bench with anti-roosting-spikes─seductive and repulsive at once.
* Looted Art in Cairo
On Wednesday, 2010-04-28, 19:49 +0200 Sankalita S. wrote:
> Hello Nadia,
>
> Congratulations on a superb exhibit at DARB. I came for the opening
> and really liked your exhibit.
>
> I am writing about the exhibition for newspaper Daily News Egypt and
> in this regard, I had a couple of questions. I would have loved to
> meet you in person and talk to you but I understand from Ghada that
> you have already left. I have some background information on you.
> Additionally, I had a couple of questions; so I thought I could email
> them to you and you could send me your answers.
>
> What inspired your exhibit at DARB?
> How does your exhibit fit into the theme of "SPLIT"?
>
> It would be great if you could email me your responses by Friday since
> I have a deadline to file my story.
>
> Looking forward to hearing from you.
>
> Regards
> Sankalita
Dear Sankaĺita
I am happy and touched that you liked my work.
I guess you read the text which was hanging next to my work, but I am sending it
again because it contains some elements of explanation to your questions.
How does this work fit to the theme "Split" ?
I consider split as a separation within one element. The separation is meant as
an opposition or a contradiction within the same object. a bench is an object on
which people sit, it represents in all cultures the opportunity to take a break,
to rest. The spikes are there to prevent such a possibility.
Because of them, the bench is not functional any more, it expresses through this
loss of functionality a fundamental contradiction, a separation. In the space
of exhibition the work splits concretely the space in two units. This reminds
the situation of perception in a museum. A bench in the middle of the space
where people can sit to a admire paintings.The spectator in this accustomed
situation of perception has a natural will to have a sit. since it's not
possible to sit, the object through it's own contradiction creates an
irritating feeling of bother.
What inspired my work?
the first element of inspiration are the bird control spikes. These aggressive
instruments, are invented by Western people to control the movement of birds. By
fixing these metallic elements, which are ready-mades, I just wanted to express the
silliness and the incongruity of such an invention, it's also a kind of revenge
for all the birds who were hurt by such objects. I wanted to express my
feeling of protest about the idea of wanting to control every thing even the most
free elements in nature, birds. I think it's an interesting point that societies
which consider them selves as open minded and free, invent theses kind of
anti-settlement control systems.
I hope these are you enough explanations, if you have other questions I will be
happy to answer wish you all the best
nadia