FIGUREHEAD DISPOSITION I, 2013
Bronze on Steel base, ship (bronze plated)
Edition of 8
1030 x 470 x 570 mm
FIGUREHEAD
*In politics, a figurehead is a person who holds de jure an important (often supremely powerful) title or office yet de facto executes little actual power, most commonly limited by convention rather than law. The metaphor derives from the carved figurehead at the prow of a sailing ship.
The word can also have more sinister overtones, and refer to a powerless leader who should be exercising full authority, yet is actually being controlled by a more powerful figure behind the throne.
DISPOSITION
*A disposition is a habit, a preparation, a state of readiness, or a tendency to act in a specified way. The terms dispositional belief and occurrent belief refer, in the former case, to a belief that is held in the mind but not currently being considered, and in the latter case, to a belief that is currently being considered by the mind.
In Bourdieu’s theory of fields dispositions are the natural tendencies of each individual to take on a certain position in any field. There is no strict determinism through one’s dispositions. In fact, the habitus is the choice of positions according to one’s dispositions. However, in retrospect a space of possibles can always be observed.
A disposition is not a process or event in some duration in time, but rather the state, preparation, or tendency of a structure “in waiting”.
