2018
MassMoCA Residency
Pauca Paucis
Metal smith - Luke Buttler
Pauca Paucis comes from Latin and can be translated as “a few for the few”. These metal sculptures challenge the banal act of consuming food as well as the conflict between abundance and scarcity. The proximity of the forks and the different lengths result in some participants being able to reach the offered food more easily and comfortably than others. This small gesture mimics a harsh reality, where seemingly simple and vital necessities are easily accessible to some and impossible to attain to others. It is up to the group of participants to negotiate how they approach the offered food, which can range from gracefully and orderly, in a communal/collaborative mindset to distancing oneself from the action altogether. I am fueled by the thought that fatalism can be overcome and that alternatives abound no matter how hard a challenge may seem. My performances can take the form of social experiments or collaborative efforts/exercises. By creating situations that invite the participants to experience the present with a sense of wonder and curiosity I hope to point toward achieving a shift in paradigm; to a collaborative mindset instead of a competitive one. I am a strong believer that the more we engage in collaborative practices and problem-solving, the more open we become to finding solutions and possibilities grounded in inclusion, compassion, diversity, friendship, and equality.
Pouring
These fabric sculptures stem from the hybrid series. Each has an existentialist meditation within it. Pouring presents one body originating several smaller bodies, mimicking the sweet yet violent cycles of life. The larger body like the ancient Venus figurines indicates fertility or abundance. In this image, there is clearly multiplication, like the archetypical Eva that gives life to all generations from the beginning of time until the present. The image suggests sacrifice. One emptied body gives its own insides to create new ones. There is peace and stillness to the figure that hangs headless, inverted, and pouring out life, or perhaps this is the peace and stillness of death. Of a body that has been drained to supply for others. The hanging figure also makes allusions to the tarot, the hanging man, representing sacrifice and surrender. Lastly, the hanging body alludes to dead animals at a slaughterhouse, where carcasses are bled out to be cut up. to nourish others, each body being divided and collectively consumed.
Embrace
Embrace is a body that attempts to comfort itself within its own arms. Peaceful in its upside down predicament. It surrounds itself with its own limbs in a loving yet incomplete gesture. This sculpture was traced loosely by myself contouring my own body. While I traced myself, the shape shifted with my movement, resulting in this somewhat life sized but dynamic and imperfect representation of my own body. Many of us suffer with dysmorphia, and insecurities with our looks, proportions and size. This imperfect body is a love letter to acceptance, compassion and enjoyment of the necessity of imperfection and chaos of existence.
Blue Link
This shape is inspired by Plato’s Symposium. The story takes place while guests at a banquet are invited to discuss the idea of love. They drink and take turn speaking of their thoughts on the subject. One particular guest Aristophanes, speaks of humans as having been once made by two sexes (not in any particular gender combination), two heads, and four of each limb. These beings roamed the earth and were magnificent. Like many Greek myths the story leads to hubris, and the displeasing of the gods. In this particular case the punishment for human arrogance was to be split in two. Each half condemned to live separately. Aristophanes, speaks of how after being split the main objective of the severed halves is to find its counterpart, trying to recombine themselves. Leading to a lifelong search, and attempts to connect with other human beings. He goes on to say that if the halves do find one another, that they try to hold on and stay as close as possible in a futile attempt to become one once again.
This sculpture is a meditation on this link between living beings, and how strong it can be. The links are thought to be interchangeable or interconnectable, as human relationships tend to be. Platonic or romantic, no particular relationship exists in isolation. This is just one of many links in this series, and I hope to create many more interconnectable links to form a vast network of connections.