Updated Breakthrough Statement
Breakthrough is a melting wooden fence that brings into play the concept of the phallic One and the labial Other in order to investigate their co-existence and possibilities for difference. The One side is a reflection of the world we live in and its dominant patriarchal structures that are conditioned by the phallic Logic of the Same and the ‘one truth’ (Irigaray 1985). The representation of a standard wooden fence follows the Logic of the Same, however the hole in the middle presents an opening onto a deviant reality that is melting through the wooden fence. The melting drips are carved to reflect the gravity of our patriarchal world. Melting downwards in the same direction, they represent linear phallogocentric drips.
The Other side presents a creative confrontation to these dominant patriarchal structures by exploring what it means to think from within the ‘labial’. Through a feminist process of writing a labial language of difference into the wood, the Other side conveys the features of a female sexual imaginary by presenting a composition of the dynamics of fluids. Incorporating these feminist sensibilities, each drip is carved to symbolise different labial drips. As the labial language sets off in all directions, each drip melts in different directions expressing a different sexual response. Embodying the concept of ‘a thousand tiny sexes’ (Deleuze & Guattari 2004), the multiplicity of drips present different possibilities (for Other). The labial drips therefore pose a resistance to the gravity of our world in a desire for different kinds of gravity.
From this Other side, the opening within the fence presents a return to reality. This hole symbolises art’s ability to open onto the outside, and return with the possibility of bringing something new with which to express a different world. Breakthrough stands as a call for the creation of a different kind of world in which everyone can have equality of the imagination, pleasure and expression.
