Slave > salve
Slave > Salve is a large wooden panel with a surface streaked with burn marks. Between these irregular lines, the words “Slave” and “Salve” can be read at an angle. As they blend into the linear patterns and grooves of the wood, they are barely legible. By separating the two terms with a “>” sign, SoiL Thornton highlights the mechanisms by which people and objects are commodified, denouncing the notion of social productivity and the injunctions associated with it. People are reduced to the status of objects, both containers and contents. Burnt wood is the expression of a wound opened up by human productivity at the expense of the environment. In this work, where the life of the material is confronted by the pain of fire, there is a great brutality mixed with muted, masked suffering. Language communicates in an abstract and suggestive landscape, highlighting mechanisms specific to contemporary society.
Text written by Clara Delettre as part of the partnership between the École du Louvre and Lafayette Anticipations – Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin.
Exhibition
Maxwell Graham Gallery, New-York (Etats unis)
from 13 Jan to 25 Feb 2023