Ceci N’est Pas Une Barriere

This sculptural work is made from shingles, grab bars, a porch light, and police issue handcuffs. The work is heavy, the materials are mounted on thick weathered wood boards with twenty-one golden screws. It has a very domestic feel, and yet it is very oppressive. The handcuffs are clasped around the bars, and the shingles are layered in a way that is reminiscent of a building. The handcuff keys are placed on a hook at the top, as if to suggest that the handcuffs can be removed. The use of golden screws in the piece, rather than the more utilitarian and less expensive galvanized screws, suggests a sense of opulence and value. The title of the work, Ceci N’est Pas Une Barriere, is an homage to Magritte’s famous painting, Ceci n’est pas une pipe. The work is an exploration of the idea of home. It examines the boundaries and limitations of the domestic sphere, and the ways in which it can be a form of constriction. The work is a physical manifestation of these domestic boundaries, both in the way the materials are used, and in the way they are misused. The choice of materials is significant. The use of shingles, which would traditionally be used to create a roof, in a sculpture that one-sided suggests that this work has no roof and cannot be considered a shelter. The use of the grab bars is also significant, as they are usually used to create safety and security; here, they are used to create the opposite. The use of police issue handcuffs is striking. In the context of society, they are used to restrain prisoners, and yet here, they are used to create a barrier between the viewer and the work. The sculpture is not a barrier, but it is also not a home, this is a reference to the fact that a home can be a place of safety and security, but it can also be something that we cannot escape.