Work Number 522

This new piece of sculpture has been made from a found object (a hand dryer) and the stems of an artichoke cast in bronze. Thus it is an assemblage of found and made objects. It is untitled and designed to be displayed as shown here, on a black base with a three black low-sided flats. It is one in a number of works that record my interest in reflective surfaces and bathroom furniture and stems from a number of sources. I will begin with the reflective materials interest first. I remember reading that people become less violent and aggressive if they see themselves reflected. The research was looking into how hostility could be reduced in users of public services and concluded that people would behave better if they could see themselves. I don’t remember where I saw this; it was some years ago and possibly when I was working in a customer-facing role, shortly after a violent customer held me hostage. I don’t know whether this research has been followed up or acted upon either as I see little evidence of it in places I’ve visited. Anyway, I wonder whether people would have acted differently had they seen themselves reflected as a whole and whether violent nations or groups could similarly have a large or virtual mirror held up for them to see themselves. I made a piece on Nazism using this thought a few years ago and have been drawn to reflective surfaces from time to time, like the two pieces I have made recently; one with a pedestal; and the one illustrated here with a hand dryer. I am not just content to exhibit the found object but want to use it in combination with something else. Here, I have used bronze stalks from artichokes that are rising vertically from one of the surfaces of the dryer. The dryer is displayed on its back; it is not mounted, as it would be in a bathroom. It is washed up and lying prostrate so that all of its outer surfaces can be seen, only its innards are not visible and the workings which drive the dryer have been removed so it is without the ability to perform its intended function. In this respect, it is just a casing, a husk, a shell, the housing for an object that can no longer work as intended; it is breathless and mute, its chrome proboscis looking silently outward.