I have chosen to present on a piece by the Dutch artist Sema Bekirovic. She is an artist that works in photography, videos and installations. The piece I have chosen is an untitled sculpture known as the dice structure (2008-2010). I was immediately drawn to this piece the moment I encountered it, and while I would have previously considered myself to not be a major appreciator of sculpture I set myself the task of figuring out why I was so charmed by the piece.
Looking at the piece I noted my initial reaction to it. It looks like some sort of free floating entity, something organic which has formed its structure without crafted intervention. It veers off to the right like it is about to break free of some invisible weight that is holding it back and it feels changeable, almost alive. It is both delicate and equally strong, not unlike a puff of smoke, a cloud or something more menacing, a tornado, a swarm of white insects, an explosion. Up-close it made me think of molecular structures, DNA, that which is imbedded in our biology. So equally the piece brought me to think about unpredictable forms about man and about nature. Impressive for a nameless, blank intricate pattern, floating in space.
Upon a closer look at the materials used for the piece my thoughts upon the predictable and the unpredictable expanded. The sculpture was created with manufactured dice that have come straight from the factory where they were built. The dice are still unvarnished, still fused together and haven’t had their spots painted on yet. Dice of course represent chance, and risk. The unknown and unpredictable element in happenings that seems to have no assignable cause. A force assumed to cause events that cannot be foreseen or controlled; a risk; gamble. These ideas manifest in the structure and unpredictability of the piece and so is no coincidence that dice are used in the creation of the sculpture. This material compliments the metaphorical intentions of the piece beautifully.
It is no mistake that the piece can be read as being similar to molecular structures as much as to natural occurring phenomena in nature. Theories of chance also come up in many scientific fields such as chaos theory, probability theory and quantum mechanics. The Japanese theoretical population geneticist Motoo Kimura emphasises the role of indeterminism or chance in evolution. He developed a theory known as the neutral theory of molecular evolution which states that at the molecular level most evolutionary change is caused by random drift of gene mutants that are equivalent in the face of selection and this does not detract from Darwin’s theory of natural selection. And so it seem that everything right down to the evolutionary process of genes might just be governed by casual means This is just some food for thought and without getting too far off course on returning to a visual encounter with the piece, I saw something else. While we recognise this mass as a collection of attached dice, they are not yet dice. We have not yet named its purpose and assumed its role. They have been robbed of their function and meaning because they are still fused together and unusable. It reminded me of a quote from a letter Dali wrote to his friend and supposed lover the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca,
The minute-hands of a clock (...) begin to have real value at the moment they stop pointing out the hours and, losing their circular rhythm and the arbitrary role our intelligence has subjected them to (pointing out the hours they evade the clock entirely and occupy the place that would correspond to the sex organs of little breadcrumbs
Regarding the immediate space it occupies in the gallery, it completely inhabits its surroundings and the piece draws you towards it. It feels like you already know what it is or could mean. You recognise its arrangement and you are familiar with it. You can see this pattern or variations of it in clouds, bird formations, termite mounds, and under microscopes in laboratories and in the DNA of organisms. This rooted familiarity allows the viewer of the work to share a comfortable relation with the work, and at the same time this is an abstract piece, so why do I feel so comfortable.
I think the work is successful in allowing a confrontation between the tension that exists between an unwillingness to attribute life as we know it to theories of chaos and at the same time the seductiveness of the idea that everything might be governed by chance. The artists decision through most of her work to date to not exert total control over the outcome of the work is central to its success as a meditation on mans tense relationship between the desire to understand and assert control over nature while leaving enough room for the necessity of chaotic elements. This is the most important understanding of the work. The fact that there is a lack of a title, a lack of coherent form of creation and a lack of a stable form is indicative of the refusal of the artist and the work to affirm or deny anything. The evading of a definition leads to the opening of possibility.’ Arthur Miller once said
[T]here’s too much of an attempt... to think in terms of controlling man, rather than freeing him. Of defining him rather than letting him go. It's part of the whole ideology of this age, which is power-mad.
The decision was to not create an overtly politicised artwork and we know from the artist herself she deals with unpredictability and the tension between nature and culture. This tension through the pieces haphazard form is somewhat counter to the idea of what might be seen as the most stable and controlled medium that is sculpture. The refusal to blatantly dogmatise/politicise an artwork is liberation for the creator who feels that they don’t have to directly communicate a message. At the same time a refusal to politicise your art can result in various conflicting interpretations of what your work is. This can lead to the artists work propagating views which may not necessarily be their own. This loss of agency on the part of the artist can be correlated to the lack of agency exhibited by Bekirovic in the construction of this piece and much of her other work (she interferes as little as possible). Thus the artwork becomes a blank page to be written upon by others - though the artist might not agree with the conclusions drawn by viewers; this precarious relationship is itself a manifestation of the chance and unpredictability that infuses the work itself.
For a clean crisp white object to present such musings on man, nature, science and chance is in my opinion the greatest accomplishment of the work
