The Herd, 2023

Egyptian marble; 7 elements;

Each element is between 21-25cm x 45-52cm x 120-127cm high.

It is a mirror of our current fragile condition, with the heads barely sticking up and over the conceptual fence, these mask-like animals appear like sheep, longing for human touch. It is a metaphor of our human condition to act as a herd. We are a social animal.

I recently ran into this quote from the "unpopular essays" by the philosopher Bertrand Russell. It touches a deep sentiment that is embodied in my new work "The Herd". I do get asked in how far my work reflects politics of the day. And I like to think that in its timeless quality my work manifests the human condition, the human as a creature of the world. Its urgency rings through in the encounter of a viewer with the sculpture as thing that is metaphorically embracing the emotions of the now. I don't think one has to be an activist to make work that has meaning.

"Under the influence of great fear, almost everybody becomes superstitious. Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity towards those who are not regarded as members of the herd. Fear generates impulses of cruelty, and therefore promotes such superstitious beliefs as seem to justify cruelty. Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear."

~ Bertrand Russell