In my series The Hand of Assuagement I created an instillation consisting of four pieces; a video work, a collection of plaster hands, a sound work and a line of photographs.

The video work, titled Sisyphus, is a GIF of the Dalai Lama getting up and waving after a press conference presented on a CRT television. The plaster hands, titled Caucus, is a collection of thirteen hands presented on a table as if in a museum vitrine. The sound piece, titled Adoration of the Magi, is presented on a speaker. The strip photographs, titled Twilight of the Idols, depicts a time lamps of alter candles burning themselves out, and is accompanied by the remains of the candles hung beside.

The project is centred  around hand gesture of authority figures throughout history using the gesture to assuage the population into complacency (as I see it); a gesture I call the ‘hand of assuagement’. The plaster hands are casts made from the poses. The project mines history for the gestures used to convey authority, and the other mechanisms of this authority. By placing this historical survey of gestures with the continual applause of Adoration of the Magi, I comment on the adoration, and complacency of people towards these authority figures. In a similar way, by placing the Dalai Lama video Sisyphus in the mix I comment on how common place such expressions of authority are. And with Twilight of the Idols I speak of the way in which systems of authority will eventually burn themselves out, yet always leave something of themselves behind.

There is also a book, acting as a catalogue, which shows photographs of the hands coupled with quotes from Machiavelli’s The Prince to match each person. The book also contains a genealogy of the hands and four poems to speak of their social context.