Once A Man
20″ x 46″ x 28″
Mixed medium
2000

Once a Man

This is one of the artist’s most complex pieces to date, requiring some eight motors to move the component parts, and consisting of everything from champagne glasses to a hair dryer.

Each component has its peculiar significance and makes a distinct social and philosophical statement.

A Styrofoam ball is blown about by the wind, indicating the whimsical stage of life, when we are fodder for fashion and fickle to the influence of friends, fads and fortune.

Two balls move along parallel tracks, to signify the journey of man and woman through life. At the end of each track, each life, there are symbols of death and judgement; the ringing bell, a skeleton unearthed and the fire; then the cycle begins again, representative of reincarnation.

The central figure is a little man, unceasingly turning a chequered disc. Like the chequered flag at the start and finish of a car race, so does his disc start the rat race; the human rat race.
He represents the blue-collar worker grinding through the daily nine-to-five. Behind him are the symbols of his reward; the toasting champagne glasses, the festive, the party …. to ease his ceaseless grind.
This piece was done concurrently with “Twice a Child” and together they took one and a half years to complete