Four Dilemmas: Opposition

1990 | Plywood, laminate, Plexiglass, photos, graphics, magnesium, lights, bolts, etc.; 18 x 18 x 32 ins.

THIS DISPLAY CASE was the first of four proposed “exhibits” intended to present solutions to a quartet of problems that have plagued mankind for millennia. Meant to resemble the commercial product displays commonly seen in airports, railway stations, bus terminals and other public places, Opposition promotes Joinfast-brand connectors made by the MOTAM Corporation, bolts that will be used in a Time Mirror. Represented by a scale model, the Time Mirror is a space-based reflector platform that captures light radiated from Earth and over time returns it, thus creating a window into the past. The human tendency to foment division, the “we/they” opposition, can thus be overcome by recreating the period when there was only the singular “we.” The Time Mirror is, of course, a fanciful machine and MOTAM is a fictitious company, but Opposition is meant to evoke in the viewer a sense of the absurd cloaked in mundane utility – the rational/irrational conjunction once again. The other three dilemmas to be addressed were Perception, Power and Meaning. A second case for Perception was started in 1991, but the entire work was never completed.