Self Contained
2001
Laminated and coopered wood (mahogany) with pyrographed markings. 94” x 16 x 16”.
Self-Contained is, for me, a very metaphorical piece, and the first piece I made after moving to the United States. It is about passage and transition, and entering into a different life. At the time, making this piece helped me to resurrect my working process. I needed to find some space in my life to go into the studio every day and immerse myself in a very repetitive process (the 70,000 or so marks burned into its surface are a rough equivalent of the number of working hours in an average person’s life). It recalls the Zen notion of practice.”