One House, Many Paths

A sculpture for challenging the disempowering high art object

Resumo

This article describes the methodologies and processes that gave birth to a sculpture called One House, Many Paths. It does so by taking in to consideration the context in which it was developed, relating the encounter that triggered its development to the moment when everyday objects are discarded and reflects critically on a type of art that generates what is described as disempowering high art object. This reflection touches on points such as how the observer sees this type of sculpture and the knowledge or information it conveys, highlighting the power relations it produces and the socio-environmental problems it masks which are supported by miths such as those of high art, sacralization, autonomy, universal truths or intrinsic value that still persist, although with less strength, after the digitalization and globalization of the art world. It also uses a methodology based on artistic practice to describe how, through this sculpture, materials are chosen and manipulated in such a way as to produce a form that proposes a new way of looking at the object, i.e. on a broader temporal and spatial plane conveyed to the reality. This is argued to be essential to an art that situates itself inside a capitalist and consumerist society in ecological crisis.