Bend of Black Thought


Olaf Brzeski
Bend of Black Thought

2017
steel, paint, 80 × 150 × 80 cm

This unique object of painted black steel, attached to the ceiling, evokes a certain state of mind of the artist.

 

Brzeski recalls the experience thus: “One day I was lying on the mattress in my empty, still-unfurnished apartment and observing a fly circling the light bulb. At some point I became hypnotized by the partly geometrical and partly chaotic flight of the fly. You try to untangle the emotional state of the insect, but from the human perspective it seems impenetrable. I sketched out a fragment of the fly’s itinerary ‘live’ and later converted the sketch into a three-dimensional object in the form of a chandelier. I gave weight and value to this observation, because it seemed precious that I could bestow a material form on something so fleeting—to convert a state of boredom into the physical activity of making a sculpture, to actually put this boredom to good use. But Bend of Black Thought also alludes to the demoralizing nature of boredom and idleness, when evil thoughts arise and humor is hung up.

 

Later I read someplace that for a fly, this geometrical flight is a mating dance, and the light bulb is the best place to be noticed by a potential partner. But that’s still a very human point of view.”