Entelechia

Entelechia
-(from Greek en in, telos purpose and echein to have)
2007
Current scale is 700 x 300 cm
A selection of spherical-ball-shaped designs in down spiraling complexity,
collagen, and needles, Plexiglas bubbles, drawing of a digestive system

The used polygons shapes are the following (simple to complex)
Triangle (trigon), quadrilateral (tetragon), pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, octagon, nonagon (enneagon), decagon, hendecagon (undecagon), dodecagon, tridecagon (triskaidecagon), tetradecagon (tetrakaidecagon), pentadecagon (pentakaidecagon), hexadecagon (hexakaidecagon), heptadecagon (heptakaidecagon), octadecagon (octakaidecagon), enneadecagon (enneakaidecagon) icosagon, triacontagon, tetracontagon, pentacontagon, hexacontagon, heptacontagon, octacontagon, enneacontagon, hectogon

When considering origin of life we usually take the evolutionary viewpoint starting from the simple and its qualitative changes toward the complex. In the installation “Entelechia” it happens reversed inside a gigantic digesting organ that swallows the complex and ejects the simple. The Installation "Entelechia" depicts a picture of a gut system that is painted straight at the gallery wall.
The term “Entelechia”, originates in the writings of Aristotle about his understanding of life and
the force of life as laid down in one of his later treatises “De Anima”.
“What we call life is feeding, growing and atrophying in a self-containing process”, Feeding, in other words, is the basic feature of life. It takes part in a dual movement: Outwardly towards a possible source of food and inwardly back to the organ itself.”
Yet this takes place in a self-containing process and these processes are in it self the living thing”.
Now this classification of life can be applied to its simplest life forms like bugs, seeds, microorganisms and of cause us as humans on a basic level, as we are as Aristotle puts it-an organ within a self-sustaining system.
“When something appears in the full splendor of its very essence and shows what it is and what it is capable of being purely through itself (eidos), it enters a state of fulfillment and contentment in which it assumes a concrete form.” Maintaining this state is what Aristotle calls “entelechy”. Entelechy may further denote a force propelling one to self-fulfillment. There is an internal drive within the organ of atrophying and intensifying that reflects the performance principle.
Within the parkour trough the digestive system- the various shapes of geometric cutting forms go on a tireless journey. The very complex-meaning freshly swallowed, higher complex species are cradled in the stomage but will soon proceed towards simpler versions of the same specimens. These shapes furthermore continuo their journey through the labyrinths of the gut system that- finally being done- will displaying the simplest triangular pyramidal shape that will periodical ejected by the disposal port (anus).
The material you can see encased in the acrylic bubbles is called collagen, an animal based tissue layer underneath the skin. This material I was able to “purchase” during a summer job in a pharmaceutical industry several years ago and I am still experimenting with it.
Collagen has the consistence of handmade paper, but when moisturized becomes flexible like thin sliced bacon. Pinned with needles to a computer generated cutting mask it transforms- during a several day long drying process between calculated fixation points.
By behaving this way it breaks the stiff geometrics and stretches into gentle curves, though forming a living geometry.
My work process started with creating computer generated three-dimensional models of the used polygons. Think about them as wire frame objects (not solid but made like out of glass, and being translucent) -so that one could see its whole symmetry. The advantage is that I can radiate this models around itself into a position that is visual interesting and less symmetrical.
Now a soccer ball surface has clear visual symmetry from our point of vision, but it also extends itself to a not perceivable backside. By proceeding in the earlier mentioned way (making them transparent) I had them both (front and back) clear visible and was separating each on of them in two-dimensional layers.The two layers with its radius and junction points were further transferred to paper on witch the collagen was fixed with needled and left to dry. After the drying process these two layers were combined by witch the “backside” was lifted 1cm, and the front side 3 cm of from the paper.This creates the effect of the work as being a spatial object.
The installation “Entelechia” used to go under name “Eat this”; -that had been a work name-tag.
As artist I feel free to change names at points that a new idea finally settles and if you read about this piece on other pages, don’t get confused about it. Insights often occur, by the fact that my works are often more than an individual sculptures but generate within bigger installations. There are temporary several works that I consider to be ongoing project by means of being unfinished or ongoing collections. “Entelechia” is a work in process, meaning that it is adjustable and extendable.
Likewise the installation-collection by the name “Skinned polygons”, “Eat this!" is visualizing an evolutionary process revolving around a round shape. (I like the way it sounds.)
It is not my aim to claim deeper meaning to my works by connecting them to specific concepts of ancient Greek philosophers- but in a way I often find their sort of reasoning fitting to a certain school of thought that I enjoy from a sculptural point of view.
Please feel free to skip this train of thoughts and just go for the visual -or being interested in this topics-to read the first chapter of the second book of Aristotle’s -De Anima.