2017

Stick, photographic print

Falling reminds us of our inescapable bond with the Earth. In the fall, gravity, which binds us to Earth, overcomes will, which drives us to rise to the sky, to stand, and to constitute ourselves as humans in a physical and evolutionary sense. The fall can be not only physical but also spiritual and cultural. Balance is lost; support is needed.

A fallen branch, a natural element, can be used as a walking stick, thus becoming a cultural element. The stick provides a foothold on the ground to maintain balance, so as not to fall.

According to Rudolf Steiner, balance is one of the twelve senses that enable the harmonious development of man. It is a sense of body and will, which enables the perception of one’s inner self. Linked to balance is the sense of orientation, “a sense for perceiving a relationship between the Earth’s centre of gravity and one’s own body.” And the stick points to this centre of gravity, the ” centre of the Earth,” words are written on its lower end, which reminds us, while serving as a support, of man’s inescapable connection to Earth.

The stick holds a photograph, formally playing with the same concept of balance and support that it stands for, and the image represents transience, expressed in the body, to which the stick offers a form of resistance. Accompanying that slow dispersion of the self that is life.