by Barbara K. Prokop

Beton, 15 x 20 x 5 cm

ED 15, 2AP

FIND THE SPOT WHERE IT HURTS AND PRESS REALLY HARD is the first piece in a new series of sculptures that aim to solidify the transient nature of my past drawings into a more permanent state—an object harder to erase.

In these transitional times of cultural wars, fought through media, social media, and AI, information is more fleeting and more manipulated than ever. The line between information and disinformation is ever moving, and the promise of a more diverse fleet of gatekeepers has created an intensity of battles we should have seen coming, but most of us didn't. This period is not for the faint of heart; it is a time where words like gaslighting have not only made it into our vocabulary but also into our interactions. Long gone is the euphoric idea that the Internet would create a more democratic and unified world; instead, we are entrenched in the limits of censorship and continually hit over the head by the badmouthing of ideas that stray from the mainstream. We are deeply entrenched in an era of taking screenshots, in fear of not finding again what we have just witnessed. It is this dread of book burning in real time, through the annihilation of information, that this new series wants to capture.

Nothing is permanent, let alone a piece of art, but its survival is based on its preservers, not on its medium. Therefore, a piece of concrete is, in theory, no less vulnerable to decay and destruction than a piece of paper or a digital file. So, the endeavor of permanence in FIND THE SPOT WHERE IT HURTS AND PRESS REALLY HARD becomes a symbolic statement, a comical and helpless action striving to come to terms with the current state of things.