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ARCHETYPAL COLLAPSE (2022): a standing wooden table and one collapsed to the floor in a white room

Fig. 1exhibition view XXXTRAORDINARY, La Rada Locarno

ARCHETYPAL COLLAPSE (stai a tavola con noi anche se non mangi)

2022

wood, metal weights, score, 85 x 140 x 70 cm

Text

Exploration of the conceptual space of grasping, fluidity, and tension between human bodies and the materials/objects that form a surround. What occurs around a dining table?

The spectator is invited to interact with the piece by adding weight on the center of the table, causing it to collapse in on itself. The fall reveals the overturned image of the table and by extension of the domestic world, of the customs and norms that make up the ritual of the meal in the household context.

An inevitable physical twitching responds to the crashing noise, which pierces the walls of the space echoing down the stairs. “Is it the table that tips over or the world that turns upside down and the table the only thing left standing?”
The installation challenges the viewer’s assumptions about stability and familiar hierarchies.

“A table that is on the cusp of being made and broken all at once. One built with hands but not controlled by them. At this table the menu is not set – the space is laid bare, ready to be filled with the fruits of plenty, those yields of delights and discontents alike. Johan Huizinga wrote that “Play is older than culture, for culture, however inadequately defined, always presupposes human society, and animals have not waited for man to teach them their playing”. Naturally, it is also through play that one can learn. Which is to say, that it is also through play that one may unlearn. Here play is not so much about winning as it is about losing control. So come along and take a place at the table. Bring something, or just come as you are, but be careful not to lay your elbows too heavily in this space, because it may all come crashing down before you’ve had time to say grace.”

Huizinga, Johan. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture. New York: Harper & Row. 1970. p 01.

Text written by Emmet Ward

ARCHETYPAL COLLAPSE (2022): a child stacking metal weight plates on the wooden tabletop

Fig. 2

ARCHETYPAL COLLAPSE (2022): visitor looking at a tabletop slipped halfway down its legs

Fig. 3

ARCHETYPAL COLLAPSE (2022): tables in different stages of collapse on a parquet floor

Fig. 4exhibition view Sous nos ongles, Kunsthus Biel/Bienne

ARCHETYPAL COLLAPSE (2022): metal weight plates stacked on the tabletop, the leg ends flush with its surface

Fig. 5

ARCHETYPAL COLLAPSE (2022): a standing table and a collapsed one with weights on its fallen top, on parquet

Fig. 6

ARCHETYPAL COLLAPSE (2022): visitors and a small child around a collapsed table in a room with tall windows

Fig. 7

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14 works, 2020–2025