transience

"Sometimes making something leads to nothing." Francis Alys drags an ice cube through Mexico City for 9 hours until it melts entirely. Alys’s paradoxical endeavour presents a balance between absence and presence, between the idea and the object, and between what isn’t there as well as what is: the space between things in which transformation occurs. This metaphorical act nods to the transience of the human and natural condition that, after enough exposure to the world around us, will evaporate. Alys's metaphorical actions refer to fragility and a change of perspective. Like the mirror that is present when looking out to sea, at the stars, or down at us from a height, realising the insignificance of ourselves as individuals within a wider epoch. Art utilises expressions of futility to stimulate empathy, allowing us to come out of our individual states. As Brené Brown would say, "Empathy fuels connection; connection fuels reflection."

Discourse that can introduce a shift in thought, by focusing on mortality, leads to a greater appreciation of presence. Alys’s 1997 performance, though considered an absurd use of one’s effort and time, was done to symbolize the frustration that everyday residents of Mexico City were enduring in an effort to improve their living conditions. Paradoxical expressions of fragility throughout visual language are becoming increasingly more relevant in today’s society, characterised by our automatic lifestyles within a world in crisis.

Olafur Eliasson’s "Ice Watch" is a direct example of the use of highlighting transience to give feeling to something that is usually abstract and distant, to sensitize something as urgent as the changing climate. The piece consists of 30 huge blocks of Greenland ice, pulled from the waters of Nuup Kangerlua fjord in Greenland after having broken away from the adjoining ice sheet; 24 blocks have been arranged in a circular formation on Bankside outside Tate Modern, and six more are on display in the heart of the City of London outside Bloomberg’s European headquarters. "Greenland is literally out of our body and in our brain, and I wanted simply to change that narrative of the climate from our brain and emotionalize it into our bodies," says Eliasson. The spectacle of watching the centuries-old ice cubes vanish is an incisive action with the goal of sobering the individuals living in a metropolitan automatic existence. Eliasson presents us with Hegel’s Weltgeist and Zeitgeist, a world spirit and a time spirit. Olafur and Hegel identify and differentiate the mentality of one historical epoch that may differ very much from that of another, and that as individual minds we are very much creatures of our time and its historical climate. A spectacle stopping us in our tracks, attempting to disrupt our typical understanding and time, using fragility as an intimate stimulus.

In a post-internet age where addiction to social media dopamine factories is rife and phrases like micro-trends are coined, there is no mental breathing space left to be sincerely present and therefore reflective.

Eliasson’s and Alys’s works act as the antithesis to the typical paradoxical visual cycles ingested in our time: Tik-Toks, reels and endless scrolls. A constant attack of stories and images creates the illusion of endless possibilities, leading to a sense of urgency and the fear of missing out. Our current addiction to images and stories highlights a space where Alys and Eliason’s insightful use of vital language can be utilised, as it is now in our nature to intake information through short snippets of visual information. By identifying this parallel between the vital (social and climate matters) and the futile (endless scrolls and reels), we can utilise this key to create the empathetic connection that Brown talks about above, while becoming more enlightened by Hegel’s idea of self in relation to time, a potent homogenisation which can lead to an awareness of fragility within ourselves and our surroundings. Alys's act of dragging an ice cube through Mexico City for nine hours until it melted entirely is a powerful metaphor for the transience of the human (Zeitgiest). The melting of the ice blocks is a powerful symbol of the urgent need for action to prevent catastrophic changes to our planet's climate (Weltgiest). In a time where we are constantly shelled with messages about the importance of productivity and efficiency, Alys and Elliason’s act serves as a mirror to reflect on the fragility of life. By focusing on the space between things in which transformation occurs, reveals an art space that needs to be urgently created by artists and visited by humans.