How much does your history weigh? (We are all together complicit in one way or another, here and elsewhere, then, now and tomorrow) 2016
The question embedded in the very long title for this artwork, comes from a conversation between architect, philosopher, writer, designer and theorist, Buckminster Fuller, and architect, Norman Foster. Fuller asked Foster, how much his buildings weigh? (This question is also the title of a documentary on the architectural practice of Norman Foster—How much does your building weigh, Mr. Foster, 2010,DVD, Dogwoof, S.A.). The question Fuller asks is both metaphorical and practical. It made Foster reconsider the engineering and efficiency of his buildings, which in turn shifted the design and structure of his architectural practice. I suspect it may also have made Foster reflect on his own sense of responsibility in bringing such monumental forms into the world.
Drawing on Fuller’s question, my question literally and metaphorically poses: how much would history weigh? The question connects the physical weight of material and the monumental mass of a form (we do not necessarily see almost twenty kilos of turmeric piled on the floor in our everyday experiences), with time, mortality and our collective history. Throughout my research I continually reflected on the weight and connectedness of histories, imagining what material form this could take. It is this very question, which I pose for the viewer of the artwork. I ask them to consider their own history in the question and consequently, to consider how their history is implicated in mine (and mine in theirs). Therefore if we can accept that we are all implicated in each other’s histories (and therefore futures), then, hopefully we can start to take responsibility for each other and each other’s actions. In this context, our history and our future is collective and shared. In its present state, the pile of turmeric takes an indeterminate form. It’s ephemeral state is open to change. It carries into the future, the potential and agency of healing, hope and a shared connectedness.
