Petrification III
“When he obtained this stone, he fondled it all day long while sitting and facing it. If he was tired it would rouse him; if he was feeling low it would cheer him. If one were to analyze the madness of his passion as it got worse, he was on the verge of becoming a stone” – Chen Jiru, 17th-century China.
Like Chen Jiru, we are, in a sense, “Walking, talking minerals – Earth’s crust in two-legged upright forms” (Valdimir Vernadsky). Our bones and teeth are the most obvious examples of our “minerality.” Our daily multivitamins typically contain copper, magnesium, calcium, zinc, manganese, chromium and molybdenum. The bases of this pair of sculptures are made from a dentist’s cast of my upper and lower jaws. The Chinese Lingbi stones ascend like a dying breath from my Hydrocal mandibles.
SubStance #146, Vol. 47, no. 2, 2018 ©2018 Johns Hopkins University Press: pp. 59-67.
