Flesh and Blood a kneeler reconstructed from reclaimed pallet wood, invites the audience to perform the act of kneeling in front of a mirror. From this position the participant confronts their own reflection and words of affirmation burnt in reverse into the wooden frame of the stool. The work was created for a CASArtist exhibition titled Let Us Dissent (2019).
In the work Spencer explores concepts of self-awareness, and the function of art as a form of dissenting from social constructs of ego, into our psyche and back to who we really are, with a genuinely altruistic loving ego.
Kneeling down to perform a physical ritual is designed to dissent form a religious submissive prostration into an act of self-led descent to soul embodiment.
Work inspired by Author Robert Holden, who posed the question “what would it be like not to judge yourself?”
Flesh and Blood was exhibited as part of a group show by CAS associate artists titled Let Us Dissent at Spudworks Gallery, Hampshire (Sep 2019).
“The world is a state of mind where we have an ego, a story etc. However, we have to know who we are? In my work ‘Flesh and Blood’ I invite you to contemplate your emotional presence and natural wisdom, by engaging with a sculpture which creates friction between a spiritual act and an existential return to self.” Artist Statement
Material: reclaimed wooden pallets, mirror, fabric and pyrography
© Tony Spencer 2019
