venice has always held a special place in my psyche. since when i was was little the floating city enchanted me. it always fascinated me; a magnificent city on the brink of extinction. on my latest visit i discovered this piece by artist bruce nauman dated 1972; the year of my birth. since i’ve been a diabetic for as long as i can remember, this piece held a certain poignancy for me. the correlation between a disease that has a dietary basis and the currently held hypothesis of diet related illness, made the work both prophetic and relevant. our struggle with lifestyle related quandaries and their associated issues are the relevance portrayed in this work. ‘we are what we eat’ makes perfect sense and in current conditions even more so. we are moving through a time where energy-wars, water-wars and food-wars are ever present topics under discussion. i am forced to regard the signs of the times in more than a biblical way and as a born pessimist i wonder if we have not stretched our ideologies further than our capacities. increased population demands has already placed fatal pressure on our fatigued situation. it would be fabulous if we could promise every living soul a microwave and medical assistance as part of the increasing number of basic human rights; that is of course if we can provide these unilaterally… otherwise they are simply empty ideals which exist in privileged pockets and belong on the starship enterprise more than in a modern social economical context.
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