2008, dimensions variable, wood, bronze, parrot, and other materials.
In his Allegory of the Cave, the philosopher Plato conveys a metaphor in which a person living in a cave might see shadows on the wall and think them to be the whole of reality; this allegory points out the human capacity for delusion. In this installation, when a viewer stood inside of the gallery, the wooden structure appeared as a cliff face with a cave-like entrance. Echoing Plato’s allegory, during this exhibition the artist sought a state of mental transcendence through physical exhaustion by continually lifting a set of bronze dumbbells.
When a viewer stood outside of the gallery, and looked in through its storefront windows, they could see that the cave was very much a construct. The artist lived in the cave during the days leading up to the exhibition and was on view for the public as a living example of a person seeking to drag himself “up a steep and rugged ascent” to exit the metaphorical cave of delusion.
The artist would periodically stop lifting the dumbbells to read Plato’s Allegory of the Cave to a parrot. Reading to the parrot was a metaphor for the limitations of human understanding, and it was also an experiment in passing Plato’s existential musings on to another conscious creature.
Artifacts from On Shadows and Realities, 2008, approximately 4”x4”x12” each, bronze, steel, and paint.
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