luizart

SEPTEMBER
11TH
(Work since and around the bombing)

Which Way?

£750

30" x 20"

oil on board

In the film The Year of Living Dangerously an Indonesian shadow puppet theatre - shadows of two dolls cast onto a sheet by a light shining from the back - depicts the two forces which rule the world. First one puppet dominates over the other. But then gradually the other gains strength and eventually bursts out on top of the first one and dominates it for a period before the whole thing repeats itself back the other way around. Using this model, the energy in the world slowly but inexorably swings back and forth between these two forces.

To me it feels, since September 11th, as if we've just gone through one of those shifts of one puppet bursting up above the other.

I think the 'freedom into chaos' puppet burst onto the scene with the 60's, but now, because all that initial 60's freedom has been so misused and abused and finally reached an extreme moment of chaos on September 11th, the 'power into control' puppet has begun to push back extremely hard and is attempting to gain the ascendency again. If and as it succeeds in gaining the upper hand - and this may take some time - it will establish itself and then will most likely be around for some time to come.

As it manages to get the chaos under control and if we manage to pull the world back to rights again - and this could be the best use of this kind of energy - this will give us a sense of safety. It will feel as if we're being saved from destruction by chaos - planetary & personal. Longer term, as it spreads its control, we will probably end up with the Roman writer Juvenal wondering, 'quis custodiet ipsos custodes' - who will guard the guards themselves. By then it will be time for the freedom puppet to make its re-appearence.