The arrow and its shadow

Watercolour and ink on paper, 76 x 56cm, 2018

Text

The hero always repeats the past and perishes in the repetition. He exemplifies stupidity in that stupidity drives reason, that reason can only prove itself in unreason. Time is the outward and upward movement of reason forming an ever-growing cone, at the base of which is the concept of the subject. Inside and on the circumference of the rising and expanding cone are the claims staked to the representation of this concept. The claims inside the circle are the former presents, those on its circumference are the presents. What is lying outside the circle is unclaimed, is the nonsense on which reason will be grounded.

The Hero sets himself against the unconscious of the ID and that of the Ego. The unconscious of the ID is the death drive, that of the Ego is the memories of former present claims, each univocally claiming to represent the concept of the subject. The unconsciouses of the ID and Ego envelop and are enveloped by each other. Everything that is unclaimed causes the former present claims to the concept to displace and substitute each other. The hero is doomed to failure by the combined forces of the death drive and the metonymic and metaphoric relations of the former presents, metonymic indicating the simultaneity of these memories and metaphoric their diachronic or substitutive nature.

Instead of the vertical axis which the arrow-like monument represents, the hero should think of the whole of chance, everything lying between the vertical and horizontal axes, the latter the shadow of the former, representing the unconsciouses of the ID and Ego, the ground which rises up and against which the hero stands. When the hero casts the dice against the combined forces of the unconsciouses, each cast should be for the whole of chance. He should play the way the unconsciouses play, hoping to maximise chance. Each throw is in itself once and for all and each outcome can only be full equivocality.