Description:
Several hundred human faces lie distributed over the stone floor,
all aligned in the same direction. These faces were all cast initially from only 2 different originals, which
I had modelled previously.
And all the faces are in one of just 2 colours: a very pale brown and a dark clay-like brown.
Yet closer inspection reveals that no two faces are exactly alike: before firing,
each of them was finished singly with darker cracks and fissures, and black or bluish-black glazed
eyes contribute to the individuality of each countenance.
The facial expressions were however intentionally kept uniform: they all gaze straight ahead, dreamily lost in thought, without recognisable emotion, and though they lie side by side they lack any apparent interrelationship or mutual awareness.
Statement of Intent :
The word MIND has manifold meanings encompassing the various emotional and rational dimensions of the human being.
OPEN-MINDEDNESS is to be understood in this all-encompassing sense. It stands for openness of feelings and intellect, for a freedom from preconceived opinions and prejudices, for tolerance, and finally also for the refusal to suppress the past or misrepresent history.
The installation is thus not to be interpreted symbolically. It purports neither to depict
Open mindedness as an ideal state of affairs nor to point to the possibly frightening consequences of its absence.
Open mindedness is not understood here as a condition, so to speak a superior state of mind, that one either possesses or does not possess. Rather it is a constant process requiring
as much sharp perception as a permanent questioning of interpretations. This is the
process that will, it is hoped, be triggered in the viewer by this installation, and allowed to surface in his or her awareness.