2008, 13” x 18” x 9”, wood, plastics, and glass.
In Herman Melville’s book Moby Dick, Captain Ahab pursues the white whale with a maniacal fanaticism about the importance of killing it; in the end, Ahab’s convictions lead him to ruin. Certainty can be a kind of restriction since it can prevent one from thinking about the world in a new way. Bonsais are kept small by a constriction of their roots, and thus, they are a symbol of the potential consequences of fervent belief. In this piece the whale is also confined with the packing-peanut-like bonsais, demonstrating the claustrophilia of certainty.
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