TRAVELLING BODY II (maquette), 2015
Bronze
Edition of 12
308 x 430 x 170 mm
Unmooring the Greek myth of Aegeus as a point of departure, Travelling Body talks about the psyche – about the conscious, subconscious and unconscious mind. The body a boat crossing the river Styx: linking the bodily underworld to the drifting mind.
The idea of the psyche is central to the philosophy of Plato. In his work Phaedrus, Socrates gives four arguments for the immortality of the soul and life after death following the separation of the soul from the body. Plato also states that after death the psyche is better able to achieve wisdom and experience; unhindered by the body.
This piece draws into question the dichotomy of body, (spirit) and soul, truncating the torso and lower body of a submissive figure, weighed down by the raft, perhaps in a sense the subconscious tearing apart the conscious mind; the numbness of staying afloat amidst the flotsam of a South African ideal.
