B ü N k E R o i U s

"B ü N k E r o i U S" (an old Catslandish saying for "We lay in a bunker together.") is the latest in the surreal sculpture series, "Surreal Scapes: Gravity Sculpture Project". This is a series which examines the human condition. It explores the subconscious mind and what may be found within it. 

Our journey continues deep inside a tiny surreal-scape. Here we have a figure (a woman) standing on the edge of a post-apocalyptic island made of lost objects. No bigger than one inch high, she stands pensive, quiet, and alone as she peers over the edge and into the abyss. The woman is white from head to toe, as if she were dipped in plastic. Her velvety black shadow stretches across the floor, projecting on the wall behind her.

While she stands at the edge and her shadow faces the doorway, she is presented with an impossible quandary. Does she, 1. Stay on the island apocalypse and remain prisoner? or, 2. Does she try to leave by traveling through the doorway and leaving the physical world behind where there may be no return? Perhaps there is another way, Option 3: Walk off the edge of the island and into the abyss. Whatever she chooses, there seems to be only two ways of getting off. Either, jump into the abyss or go through the doorway. Both are unknowns and both are mad. And, if she decides to stay on the island trapped in the physical world, she may go mad anyway. She will have to pay the cashier. 

The doorway represents going deeper into the mind, or, folding-in on oneself. The island is the conscious mind, the awakened state. And, the abyss represents death and suicide. If she jumps, she can't be certain there is a bottom, or if death is even guaranteed. This, in and of itself may cause eternal suffering. And, if she chooses to walk through the door she may go insane. This is her dilemma.

From a psychological perspective the island represents the present, the deterioration of the physical world and our ability to cope with it. The doorway––or what's on the other side of it––represents what we don't know about our own selves. After all, it takes a lifetime to get to know our ourselves––it's a never ending continuous lesson. The doorway stands between what we can see and what we cannot see within our own psychology.

The abyss represents our feelings surrounding the subject of death and what we think of it. After all, when we die, we don't know what happens to us, or, if anything happens at all. The abyss challenges us to deal with our own feelings of death and our future, and not knowing.

No matter the outcome, she has to make a decision soon because time is running out and the moon is departing.  

END

This piece challenges our views of what we think we know about ourselves and reality. Is the conscious mind a trick which we play on ourselves? What fictions do we endure on a daily that we tell ourselves? Is the conscious mind a manifestation, so that we may continue to suffer, to evolve and to learn as a species? Maybe humankind is not material at all. Maybe it is all an illusion. A fiction.

The "US" in the latter of the title, "BüNkeroiUS" is intentionally emphasized. It's suggesting that there may be more than just one of something––perhaps, more than just one part making up our psyche. Or that, we are all connected in some way. Perhaps we are all of the same mind––a psychic super-organism.  

Made of gravity and lost materials. Stands approx 19" in height from the base.