TWO DIVIDED BY ZERO (2024)


Gallery Katariina, Helsinki, Finland

When I was a teenager and young adult in the 1980s and 1990s, I didn’t think much about death. It wouldn’t affect me: young people were unlikely to die. The only threat to my life going forward was a dangerous virus that would cause uncontrollable progression of disease and almost certain, often painful death. You could get this virus if you enjoyed your sexuality and your body, or maybe just simply if you loved. Therefore, you should avoid contracting the virus at all costs.

In our western society we are focused on improving and optimising our physical existence. We do not think about death, nor do we want to talk about it until we absolutely have to. No one can know for sure what will happen after we die. We know, of course, that the body will be destroyed without the functioning of our major organs. We cannot remember our birth, but will we ever be able to become aware of our death?  Will we each then have a personal answer to this, the greatest mystery of humanity? If, on the other hand, when we die we disappear completely, will the answer even matter if we are unable to register it?

Many random factors beyond our control determine where and what kind of people we are born into this world. Each of us is our own individual. As a result of cell division, a new, unique human being is programmed to emerge, following a precise DNA recipe. It is an incredible collection of muscles, blood vessels, nervous system, internal organs, brain cells and bones that form in a specific pattern. What makes that pile of flesh human? Where does the self, the awareness of self, reside? Do we have a soul, without which man is just an unconscious autonomous system?

The works in ‘Two Divided by Zero’ are the result of these reflections. The title of the exhibition refers to the mathematical equation that results in ‘infinity’ or ‘error’. It also refers to a kind of equilibrium or its impossibility.

Scroll to Top