Our culture of convenience creates an illusion of comfort and ease, obscuring discomfort with the grittier aspects of the human condition - especially mortality. Usually paper bags are conveniently disposed; tossing seems easier than preserving things. A stone bag is paradoxical, inverting disposal, revealing the futility of these illusions. Eventually, emotions, like debris, must be faced.
Carving the bag destroyed the stone; shards and dust fill it as if it were an urn. The sculpture, still a vessel, acquires weight and loses convenience. Since paper bags are ephemeral and mass-produced, the crafting of it to hold its own remains seems absurd.
Courtesy of A.I.R. Gallery
carved English limestone
33 x 21.5 x 21.5 cm
Finalist
Judges of the 2011 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize: Dr Gene Sherman AM (Executive Director of Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation) and Professor Ted Snell AM (Chair of the Visual Arts Board, Australia Council).
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