BY ANY MEANS…BY ANY MEANS…

This piece investigates notions of desire and the corrosive nature of power. Employing the tropes of contemporary museum display this piece is presented as a relic in the fashion of a stylized laurel wreath crown from the time of the Roman Republic, the time of Julius Caesar and the rise of the Roman Empire.  

A crown denotes royalty, specialness, elitism and grandeur and imbues its wearer with the power and status these qualities connote. This crown first appears as though it is made from a humble material, terracotta, but the interior is emblazoned with gold. Gold, a symbol of luxury, status and power is also highly reflective. Thus this crown can be symbolically viewed as reflecting the ideas of the wearer back onto their own ears, a silent echo chamber, blotting out anything other than the wearer’s own thoughts.

Demagogues make proclamations and the sycophants they surround themselves with reinforce their view without dialogue and without consideration. This crown represents the chorus singing a leader’s ideas, thoughts and desires back to themselves unceasingly. As the bearer of this crown grasps for power, they reveal their willingness to achieve their desires by any means necessary. However, the brass wire that holds this crown together will tarnish and corrode over time uncovering the fact of this crown as one of loneliness, selfishness, blindness and ultimately one of destruction.