THE SPECK OF LIGHT
Acrylic on vinyl toy
2019
For this custom project, I took a conscious decision not to decorate the figure with any of my signature intricate drawings or pretty arts because I do not believe in our current global political system, therefore I choose not to ‘glorify’ an image of a politician with my arts.
This work stands as a reminder of how insignificant our existence are to the history of the planet earth & the vastness of the universe. And how stupid it is our struggle for power, fame & profits.
Found a song with the same title on soundcloud, a good soundtrack to read this description :
https://soundcloud.com/davisharwellmusic/a-tiny-speck-of-light
THE BLUE DOT
The blue dot represents the Earth. We are all nothing in the universal scale. Our usual 80-90 years existence is just a tiny moment in time compared to the life of the cosmos. We are all microscopic beings.
“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilisation, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.” - Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994
THE BINDI
Bindi meaning "point, drop, dot or small particle"
Represents the opening of the third eye - in hope that humans will see our current reality in a new way. Bindi is considered the point at which creation begins and may become unity. It is also described as "the sacred symbol of the cosmos in its unmanifested state".
THE PAINT
The black paint represents the emptiness of the universe.
We are all alone in this part of the cosmic address.
The black paint I used to paint this figure is the Stuart Semple’s Black 2.0, ordered directly from the UK. It’s considered the world’s mattest, flattest, black art material that is available to the public. And the story behind this paint is full of art world drama. Story begins when a British artist, Anish Kapoor acquired exclusive rights to the blackest paint in the world called Vantablack in 2016. Vantablack isn’t just any color. It’s the blackest black in the world, a shade so dark that it absorbs almost all the light that hits it. It actually absorbs 99.96% of the light hitting it, making any surface it’s coated with look like a totally flat black hole. Although Anish Kapoor is not the creator of Vantablack, by acquiring the rights to the paint, nobody else can use it but him. Artists everywhere were outraged by this.
In response, Stuart Sample decided to release the World’s Pinkest Pink, available for just £3.99 to anyone who wanted it - except Kapoor. But Lisson Gallery, Kapoor’s London representative, violated Semple’s terms of service to purchase the Pinkest Pink. Then Kapoor shared a photo on Instagram featuring him flipping a pink-dipped middle finger to the camera. Captioned “Up yours.” For Semple, Kapoor represents an unchecked art world elitism that has finally gone too far. “I think their generation is all about selling something for as much as possible, to as few elite people as possible,” Semple says. By contrast, Semple doesn’t make any money from selling the pigments he makes. “It’s about getting the colours out there and making them available.” Semple then decided to release his own version of Vantablack and named it Black 2.0 as a protest against Kapoor’s refusal to share Vantablack. A legal disclaimer on Semple’s online store made this clear: “By adding this product to your cart you confirm that you are not Anish Kapoor, you are in no way affiliated to Anish Kapoor, you are not purchasing this item on behalf of Anish Kapoor or an associate of Anish Kapoor.”
