THE GADARENE SWINE
Slip cast porcelain aeroplanes, allowed to dry and then composed in formation and dissolved in a container of water. Dried, then fired and stood on a plinth. 30 x 30 x 30cm. 2024.
There are varying testimonies regarding the story of the Gadarene Swine in the Synoptic Gospels. Were there two men, or one man possessed by the demon Legion? Don't know. Jesus cast out the demon into a herd of 2000 pigs which were grazing on a hill top over the sea of Galilee. They all went mad and ran off the cliff. Two thousand pigs. What a noise. The texture of this piece makes me think of Anselm Kiefer's concrete installations. I look at the bombed territories in Gaza. They aren't inhabitable. Did the marine wildlife in the Sea of Galilee eat the possessed pigs as they decomposed in the fresh water. The Sea of Galilee is becoming salinated, due to the Israeli government removing too much fresh water for irrigation. The salt water springs under the sea bed, which usually are held down due to the weight of the fresh water, are leeching into the mass. There is a point of no return, and last time I checked it looked like that point had been reached.
