[ Return to: Part 1 - 4.The Future as Present ]

A range of hand weapons are embedded in a stone slab and presented on a very heavy, rusted, metal base. Similar to Advanced Guidance, it shows the affinities between ancient and modern weaponry. Discarded pieces of micro-electronic circuit boards are imbedded in the handles of a club, a knife, and a stabbing spear. A grenade, climbing rope, battle axe, and spear make up the rest of this toolkit for survival / domination. Although they lie passively in their stone slots, the weapons invite the viewer to pick them up and actively make use of them. The piece reflects on the brooding violence underlying South African society. [Figure 92]

The weapons comment on cultural categorisation, seen in the retention of signifiers which are wrenched from their contexts. This is shown through the random proliferation of both hand-made and high-tech components to comment on archaic notions of the fight for domination. The weapons themselves are presented without any significant use-value, almost as if they are museum-pieces. The work draws formally from paintings made by René Magritte such as The Reckless Sleeper (1927) where arbitrary objects are depicted, embedded in an amorphic shape. [Figure 93] These surrealist / dream images act as metaphors of the human unconsciousness. As analogy, Artifactual Intelligence speaks of the imprint of violence on the South African psyche.