SpierContemporary - Johannesburg Art Gallery. January - March 2008
Two Democracies consists of a vellum-covered chaise longue onto which a looped video image is projected. The form of the chaise longue references the psychiatrist’s couch and draws attention to the somatic states of longing, belonging, human frailty and notions of health and well-being. The vellum is sutured into place as an analogy for surgical procedures and as a metaphor for healing. The image consists of two coaslesced bodies that morph into one another, and which carry images of the heart and the stomach (drawn from Gray’s Anatomy). The title references the democracy of the heart and the democracy of the stomach. The figures are digitally derived and transsexual - their ambiguous identities highlight the notion that in contemporary art, the body has become obsolete.
