Friday, February 23, 2018

Jorge Méndez Blake, "The Castle"



Brick wall distorted by a single book, a copy of Kafka's The Castle. Via My Modern Met.

1 comment:

G. Verloren said...

Does it really count as a "brick wall" if it's unmortared?

This is just a bunch of loose bricks. It could probably be pushed over by a child. Doesn't that rob the artistic statement of most of the impact it set out to have?

Trying to symbolically depict the power of knowledge to oppose powerful forces which would work to keep people apart doesn't quite work if the symbol you choose to represent such forces is inaccurate and ineffectual in depicting their true power.

This is like making a heroic statue of a downtrodden figure straining mightily and piteously to lift a massive weight, except it is totally obvious that the weight is in fact made of styrofoam and weighs all of six ounces. You just can't take such a work seriously, because it robs itself of all gravitas and becomes something akin to an accidental farce.