When the brain dies and only the body remains, artificially sustained by life support, a person exists on the threshold between life and death. They exist only physically, but not spiritually. In my work, I depict this state and question what it signifies. The central image is based on a ventilator. It is a machine devoid of consciousness, yet I animate it, transforming it into an organism that mimics the human body. Within this system I have created, a heart beats, blood circulates, and all of this is housed within a shell of skin and soft tissue. The result is the image of a living machine—a representation of mere existence, maintaining life in a body to which consciousness will never return.
Materials: fabric, cardboard box, bottle caps, corrugated tube, parts from a wheeled chair, stuffed animal, corrugated cardboard, wire, PVC tubing.
Length: 55 cm Width: 52 cm Height: 116 cm