Ghost Nature

Caroline Picard

The predominant cultural tradition prioritises humankind and human culture above all other life forms – a linear, anthropocentric narrative wherein the human appears as the latest, most developed draft of life in a grand opera of consciousness; the opera begins with the origin of a universe that has since continued until now, forward from the darkest beginning of A to an elusive horizon of B: that spot in the distance that shall never be reached. The following exposition reflects notes, quotations, and autobiographical incidents that muddle this mythology. This assemblage of sources composes a constellation without beginning, centre, or end in an effort to enact a more general and omniscient intellectual environment that highlights the longstanding hierarchical expectations inherent in the Western world.

Stephen Lapthisophon, Afternoon, 2012. Video.

Stephen Lapthisophon is a multimedia artist and writer whose work investigates how language and mark-making are linked to the formation of self-identity and language. His installations incorporate everyday objects such as furniture and foodstuffs as a means to break down the barriers between the work of art and daily life. Legally blind since 1994, the inclusion of food materials such as rosemary, saffron, or bacon fat mixed with pigments challenges ideas of permanence, skill, and process as they relate to art making. His solo show Concentrations 56: Stephen Lapthisophon – coffee, seasonal fruit, root vegetables, and ‘Selected Poems’ was shown at the Dallas Museum of Art, where he is represented by Conduit Gallery. Lapthisophon’s work has been exhibited in America as well as in London, Barcelona, and Berlin.

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