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BEACH DESERT DESERT BEACH


Site-specific installation with discarded towels, wire and string.

Variable dimentions.

Part of the exhibition The Demented King.


2019



Hundreds of towels in different shades of washed white discarded because of a stain, a tear, a discolouring, and deemed too noticeable when compared to newer specimen of the same product. A desert of beach towels, a monoculture.


The title The Demented King is borrowed from the philosopher Nick Bostrom's description of a future, in which humankind controls a super-intelligent machine – in much the same way that our evolutionarily underdeveloped reptile brain insurers that the newer and much cleverer neocortex still keeps reproduction and finding food as its main goals. With this image I wish to look at contexts across historic time, which surpass the comprehension of their creators. For example, we have the stock market, which we all live with but aren't able to make predictions on with any noteworthy accuracy – and in a Danish national history context we have King Christian IV, who was forced to pawn his properties (among them The Stock Exchange) to cover his war debt. And in the future humans might invent artificial intelligence that could totally overpower us – comparing to humans as humans do to flies.


Photo: David Stjernholm