art > escape root (2015)
escape root
demonetised hyperinflation banknotes (ZWN $22,150,000,000,00), and acrylic medium on paper
76cm x 56cm
| count | denomination | value (ZWN) | Pick | click for image… |
| 443 | 50 billion | $22,150,000,000,000 | P63 |  |
| 443 | $22,150,000,000,000 |
Read: Wikipedia's article on Banknotes of Zimbabwe
Read: Wikipedia's article on Da Vinci's Vitruvian man
Read: Sydney Labyrinth (I'm proud to be one of the many donors who helped build this beautiful thing)
I find walking a labyrinth a bit like a psychological poultice:
it aids healing by drawing out stuff that hinders us.
For me, some of that stuff was about what a centre actually is.
Is it something literally inside us that controls everything,
or is that fairly modern and isolating idea part of the problem?
Valueless banknotes seemed to offer a way of seeing through it.
During a hyperinflation, the central bank we think is in control discovers it is not.
The harder it tries to maintain control of Value, the less it does.
More noughts just bring us closer to zero.
That basic pattern seemed terribly familiar,
and walking the labyrinth seemed to reinforce that.
The more I tried to make it about working my way towards a centre
to regain control of an inner life [sic], the less value it provided.
Then, out of the blue, I asked, what if you start at the centre?
So I walked straight across the conventional path to the middle…
and started a trek from there to the outside.
As I slowly wound my way out of the labyrinth,
it was as if like I had found my escape route…
I experienced a sort of return to the earth,
a return to the world out there,
a return to Country, if you'll permit me.…
and perversely, in that return I rediscover my centre,
a mythic place where I can take root…
a mythic centre around which a life can revolve as distinct from a literal one that controls…
The labyrinth gave me a mythic escape route,
valuable only if not taken internally… or literally.
Detail…
Browse: works with hyperinflation banknotes