Rats ! MoreTar ?!

1974-2004

mixed technique 32x46x50 cm

Dedicated to the Oil Industry

A rat and a mortar are dipped in tar: we are sinking in pollution. We see a critique of humanity's capacity to consume and pollute. Oil, destined to run out, has played a fundamental role in ensuring tumultuous economic expansion due to the increased availability of energy, but also to warfare due to conflict over supplies. It is also an essential component of the manufacture of affordable plastic goods, without which the communications revolution would not have been possible.

Everything moves according to oil and the race to refuel. And while it is true that we pollute the world, swim in our own filth, and ruin the natural habitats of sea and land creatures, there is a certain poetic justice to the historical influence that this substance has over mankind: petroleum derives from the fossilization of plant matter and basic sea creatures. This fuel for the engine of recent history, which influences and enables nearly all human action, is composed of some of the world’s simplest and most helpless forms. Reflection on the interconnectedness of all natural beings might lead us to treat the world more respectfully. Meanwhile we drown out in tar our ‘pestle and mortar’ which originally were the very basics we needed for our daily bread.