A Combination of Disparate Elements
Resulting in a Fortunate Outcome
The process of combining elements to enable structures from various, often random components has a history which can be tracked both in art/historical terms right through every aspect of human endeavour to a molecular level. This work began with an investigation into the structure of components, particularly carbon-based compounds. The elemental building block of all life on earth because of its ability to bond, almost carelessly, with other elements.
In terms of process, early steel manufacture for instance, involved a technique in which the raw materials employed were dung, earth, urine and wood ashes - all burnt to a crisp in a pot. The result was swords that won wars and seating that didn’t bend so often. This process was likely to have been discovered by happy accident - like so many technological advances made in chemistry, alchemy (chemistry with cloaks), science and home economics.
This throne entitled 10-BAR Cosmos represents a slow-moving cumbersome construction. A super large-scale random chemical bond which ultimately results in the form of a chair, albeit with some imperfections and unwanted parts which ultimately make it unusable as a chair.
Such imperfect combinations often result in something which contains an aesthetic value above it’s practical worth. Conversely various combinations of carbon – coal for instance, with its resident impurities, is undoubtedly more ‘useful’ than diamond - an almost pure form of carbon. The comparison is ambiguous and relative. To a person in the dead of winter a piece of coal may be far more beautiful than an enchanting but ultimately useless diamond. Diamonds on the other hand are more valuable to those who rarely handle coal.
Marcus FitzGibbon
Project 204:2010
www.2042010.com
