Ben Cove

Commemorative Plate

indian ink on porcelain plate (wall mounted)

27cm diameter

2011

[ detail ]

Sansoni's Last Supper is a complex work, a familiar scene but individually executed. An awareness of the viewer’s place in time looms large in front of this work. Painted in the 17th century and recently restored, it depicts an event thought to have occurred 2000 years ago. It presents an historic moment in time whilst simultaneously prophesying Christ’s fate in the depiction of the crucifixion. To Christians this work points back in time to a significant event whilst acting as a reminder as to the promise of the return of Christ in the future. In this regard, it could be read as both solemn and heartening.

With this in mind, my response has been to produce a pause. The phrase ‘here and now’ occurs regularly in Aldous Huxley’s 1962 novel Island. In this, his last major work, the narrative plays out in the fictional utopian civilisation of Pala, an island culture which is based on a number of eastern philosophies and religions. The Palanese people train the numerous mynah birds who inhabit their island to repeat the phrases ‘attention’ and ‘here and now’ with the intention of assisting the population to retain a full awareness of themselves at one moment in time in relation to their surroundings.

Commemorative plates, decorative rather than functional, are produced en masse to celebrate or record specific events, people or places. Though my plate is entirely non-specific, its presence seeks to anchor the viewer in the time and place in which it is hung.

Ben Cove website:
bencove.com