STATISTICS

Digital images of cast aqua-resin figures, 2021.

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96% of Statistics are Made up on the Spot was the first in a series of images cum pseudo-infographics exploring hard data through the use of 3D figures (with a nod to the Terracotta Warriors) given dimension as Lego/people icons. Though the initial batch of 50 figures was cast in Aqua Resin, they were then photographed and digitally replicated to create an ‘army’ that bears a resemblance to any number of statistical illustrations and infographics using simplistic human symbols to stand in for everything from COVID deaths to religion, gender distribution, world hunger, political affiliation - even twitter trends and "leaks". The absence of a legend is intended to reflect the subjective nature of numbers: though an essential part of interpreting and analyzing the external world, they are nonetheless vulnerable to the peculiarities of each viewer’s personal context. Douglas Crimp in "On The Museum's Ruins" (1980), cites Gustave Flaubert's writing in relation to museums' futures, but it's also relevant here: "Everything is equal, the good and the evil. The farcical and the sublime - the beautiful and the ugly - the insignificant and the typical, they all become an exaltation of the statistical. There is nothing but facts -and phenomena. Final bliss."