Saturday, November 15, 2014
Family Matters
Here is a brand new sculpture called "family."
Question. What will the uninitiated observer think when he sees it? What does it represent?
A woman, two children and a pregnant woman.
The only relationship which is clear is that of the pregnant woman with her unborn child.
Presumably the born children are also the children of one or other of the women. One woman might be the mother of one of the born children and the other woman of the other born child, or one of the women or the other might be the mother of both of the children.
What is impossible is that both women be the mothers of any of the three children at the same time and in the same respect, except, of course, by adoption; and to that extent the children would be orphans, a tragedy.
The other logical presumption is that the women themselves are not "spouses" for that also is an physical impossibility, there is no one to penetrate and to impregnate. You cannot produce calves without a bull!
As it turns out the two women are sisters and have one of the born children each, two men are missing (or three depending on whether the pregnant woman was impregnated by the same father of her born child)!
So, the one thing this statue does not do, in itself, is represent the basic family unit which, to date, is husband, wife and children.
That statue may represent any number of relationships and social arrangements, but not a family!