In the Absence of Bodies | 2016

edition of 100 porcelain statues, 4x4x6 in

In the Absence of Bodies (2016) is an edition of 100 small porcelain figurines of a toppled statue. The figurine is modeled after a life size portrayal of the Swiss-American Biologist Louis Agassiz. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake toppled the Agassiz’ statue of the façade of the Stanford Zoological building and it got stuck head down, but otherwise intact, in the pavement beneath. In this state the statue was still functioning as such, but it’s meaning had literally been turned upside down. My small reproductions of the toppled Agassiz statue in that state function as a humble souvenir, not necessarily of that particular event, but of the impermanence of values even once they are set in stone. The statues are referencing the small porcelain figurines in your grandmothers vitrine, fragile, precious but also outdated and mass-produced. The statues were also sold at a price that reflects what a fancy souvenir might cost, the idea being that the statues will be sold during the exhibition off the shelf.