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.....and Effect (Pause and effect)

2017 Competition entry

Jano Myburgh

Details:
Not Signed
Concrete sculpture
250 mm x 250 mm x 1600 mm

Description:
Our society is broken.

We manufacture psychological ailments like ADHD and drug our children into more tolerable facsimiles of their former selves, yet are shocked when our youth develop substance abuse problems to regain a semblance of childhood euphoria or exhibit other antisocial behaviour.

We continually isolate ourselves from the world through the use of (anti)social media, yet are shocked to find a marked increase in the levels of depression, anxiety and other physiological ailments among our populace.

We voluntarily elect government officials with a track record of questionable moral values, yet are shocked to discover their illicit dealings have thrown our countries into turmoil or that they advocate grabbing members of society by the "pussy".

We spew belligerent hate-speech in front of our children at every opportunity skewing their moral and social compasses irrevocably, yet we are shocked and angered to find society still discriminates against you on ground of ethnicity, gender, sexual preference, etc...

We both actively and passively perpetuate dogmatic sexism, yet cry foul when our society refuses to play by the equality rulebook and demand we should raise our children better.

Our society is the source of our own trials and tribulations, yet we are incapable of recognising we are the cause of our own problems. We wail and lament the effect of our own actions, but refuse inexplicably to accept the cause.  Without a remedy for the cause we will never address the effect.

We see the ripple in the water, hear the sound of the drop, but deny the existence of the droplet. For doing so would require us to be spurred into action.  Drop by drop our society is going astray. What happens when the bucket is full and runs over?

The work is intended to be an outdoor piece. During rainfall it collects water and channels it into the artwork where it creates the sound of dripping which is enhanced by the hollow inner void. Through the use of acousmatic music even greater emphasis is placed on the lack of cause.