EVERY SECOND HISTORY
Every Second History's impact is not flashy impressive images, but its clear simplicity addressing nature and nature's laws. The artwork is an invitation to reflect on conscious awareness in the Here and Now. and meditation on existence in the present. The installation is accompanied by the soft music of Bach's Prelude in C Major.
The installation Every Second History shows a fading ice sculpture in the shape of a round disc, suspended in space. Under the ice disc a pyramid of earth and tree bark and on the entire installation a video of rushing water is projected in a square frame. The installation is a metaphor for time. Time ticking away in seconds, to minutes swells, evaporates in hours, perishes in years. Time passing, to make history and never return.
The installation, with the light of the video projection casting dancing shadows on the sculpture and background whilst the ice slowly melts away and becomes transparent, is mystical by its clarity and minimalism and connects to the logical laws of nature, as represented by Gödel, Escher and Bach. Time is linear progressive greatness getting a connection in the geometry of basic shapes; a triangle, a square, a circle.
The melting ice symbolizes the transience of time. The ice melts and waters the underlying earth, as time goes in a straight line and is irreversible. At the same time the melt drops nourish the natural pyramid of earth and bark, a metaphor for the nourishing and healing effects of time, which heals all wounds by its progress, smoothens all wrinkles, make all hurts forgotten and refers the present in a blink of a second to the valley of ghosts. The video projection on the installation is a perpetual motion of ever streaming water. The dancing water symbolizes our perception of time. A reflection of the idea that our psychological perception of time, per time may be different. Time goes by slowly when it needs to go faster, or flies away when we want it to never end.
Time is the origin of the cosmic universe and in that of Planet Earth. Time in addition to oxygen and water has created our globe. The meticulous development of micro organisms, the growth of vegetation, development of species, the formation of high mountains, of low valleys and the meandering of a river through the quiet erosion of water, everything is due to time. Time seems an immeasurable phenomenon that is psychologically perceived as an one-dimensional, continuous, infinite greatness, symbolically represented by a straight line,. Time becomes tangible in reality because of the awareness of sensory observations and perceptions. A
conscious perception is perceived as present, whilst relived stored experiences from the memory are perceived as past and the visualization of possible experiences in an imaginary situation can be perceived as future. Depending on the state of consciousness in which one perceives and is aware of the situation, time passes slowly or quickly. Where time is an ally in some situations, it can be a cruel tormentor when it doesn't seem to pass. With the progress of years time can make forget all pain, can soften wounds, can console grief. But it can also continue raging if you need it to stop, it can impose itself as a heavy distressing phenomenon.
The time which in a split second can change your life forever is a linear continuous entity from which there is no turning back like water flowing in a straight line. It are these elements of conscious awareness and perception, of volatility and irreversibility, of inertia and of healing, that are expressed here. Water slowly drips, swirls or bubbles but continues to always flow forward and never flow back. Every second passes to make history and never return.
The installation with the circular ice block slowly melting down also symbolizes the environmental challenges of today's world where the very existence of Planet Earth is challenged and likely to change permanently over time because of climate change causing it to eventually disappear, not immediately as time seems to slow down when perceived on a larger scale in the greatness of nature's laws, but irrevocably ticking away in infinite seconds slowly nibbling the round archetype of mother earth.
With the installation Music by J.S.Bach. The installation responds to participants and its environment by inviting the audience to meditate and reflect on their personal perception of time, and conscious awareness in the present of Here and Now.
Ciska de Hartogh