Te whariki

2013

Installation

Te Whāriki is an installation consisting of a wooden bucket (1:1) and a book. The viewer is invited to move around the object in question, to find out what’s on the inside. The passage between the bucket (1.6 meters high) and the wall is deliberately narrow in order to arouse in the viewer a slight feeling of oppression.

The story is about a man who tells his life story that goes from a quiet childhood to his internment in a psychiatric clinic for behavioral disorders. Nothing pushed this initially “normal” person to develop such a need to materialize his memories in order to make them immortal. For some, memory is an heavy baggage while others, to achieve a complete expression of their identity, develop the need to be surrounded by unnecessary objects. Objects consumerism responds to a need for attachment, a habit so deeply anchored that makes one forget the impact that the human being have on their living space : fill in the blank to conceal an absence.

This narrative comes from different people’s reality, including that of the artist. The assembly allows the viewer to identify with the speech and to understand in which part of the process he/she actually is.