Based on the myth of Prometheus, the series of installations “Battery” made of silicone and based on new energy car batteries revisits the myth in our contemporary society, substituting fire - source of human civilization - with the so-called ‘new energies’. This whole body of works questions issues, whether social, economical or political, but also ethical and environmental, surrounding the technology race. Each piece presents a recurrent symbol composed of an eagle, based on a study by Frans Synders for Peter Paul Rubens’ famous Prometheus Bound, and the letters Pm, a rare radioactive chemical element named after the Greek mythology’s Titan as a symbol to “both the daring and the possible misuse of mankind’s intellect”.
The soft and sensual surface of the installation evokes human flesh, or more particularly artificial skin. The artist integrated references to youth culture by adding scarifications and tattoos on the works, creating a contrast between the machine and the human, while questioning the boundaries between the individual and society. Patterns and sentences in the tattoos and scars resonate with the researches made by the artist during the conceptualization of the work. In Battery 4, the character 鉕 po refers to the Chinese translation of the chemical element promethium (Pm), while the word Hepar (ancient Greek term for liver, which was believed to be the seat of the soul and human emotions) is scarified in gothic font.
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