bt5 — Nuweland Gallery

The desk, elevated and on display, towers over the seat of the user, who is left facing a bare wall, under the glaring lamp light. It speaks of a failure to comprehend the importance of the task at hand, or otherwise a failure to rise to the occasion.

The work is a portrait of an individual, and of a society, unable to reconcile themselves with the challenges they face; of a dislocation into incompatible parts: that that is and that which must be done.

Though despite its bleak appearance there is a suggestion of hope. If there is no apparent vision of achievement or victory, there is, at least, an implicit argument for power of presence and persistence: a declaration of belief in the importance of simply showing up.