Portrait of the Artist as a Young Macbeth, 2017
If one is to cut a passage from one room to the next one must support that remaining above the new passage way, or doorway, in order to prevent collapse of that above. One would traditionally, and practically, use a pre-stressed concrete lintel to maintain security of structure. A lintel hastily made from a plaster, typically used for the final superficial coat of plaster for internal walls, is physically unsound without exception. It is a form lacking in structural integrity, the presence of a steel rod within the form serves only as a mere appeaser to the dubious structural elements present. The piece is constructed as a text work motivated by a reading of William Shakespeare's Macbeth. Among the many themes of the play one which arose most clearly to me at that time was the personally relevant notion of reckless ambition, the action of destructive pursuit of goals for the sake of some particular superficial value attributed to them. Macbeth driven by a most severe ambition committed the greatest sin possible in its day: the killing of one's King in order to achieve his position. In this case the killing of the king ensured Macbeth the quick succession to the throne however recklessly "I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent but only vaulting ambition which o'erleaps itself and falls on the other side" (act1, scene 7) To fall on the other side, to collapse disgracefully in the advance to a higher status presents us with a pathetic image: and doomed figure lucid of his folly, but committed nonetheless. This no doubt inspired the aspect of intention in the presented work "I will attack". Attack here does not necessarily imply physical violence, but steadfast aggression in a relentless directness of pursuit.
Towards the second half of the play Macbeth in his achievement of the ultimate status wains in his
interest of the crown and even life, it is the depression felt in the achieving of an end ; a mini death.
An end location truly of little worth and even lesser significance when faced with the final location
of death. In nearing his end Macbeth states his lesson learned; that life is "a tale of sound and fury
signifying nothing" (act5, scene5)
Here I picture a person, a body standing naked in time, simply elapsing in the knowledge that
anything considered to be of any worth was only ever and illusion, an attribution of value according
to the social environment of the time. Now without that time, thus without that value, one regards
all that was spent in the reckless motion of past ambitions to get him where he stands now: elapsing
in time.
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