‘Parker Lane Hearing’
A wooden ear from an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus, with a three dimensional, gilded wrought iron support by Rourke.
Parker Lane is the site of Burnley’s Magistrates Court. The ancient wooden ear from the collection embodies ‘the person’ at the centre of the finely-made and immutable social structure of the law. It seems vulnerable. Its body is absent. ‘The person’ is a definition of responsibility in relation to the State, according to philosopher David Hume. ‘Personhood’ is a quantity to be retained, manipulated and used up, relative to the law. It carries with it a pathos that derives from the difference between this legal definition and our own experience of life, described by the different meanings of the word hearing: hearing is both subjective, lived experience and legally objectified adjudication. Wrought iron of the type made by Rourke has been used to signify this objectification for four hundred years. It is a commonplace of the visual language of the public structures of the law.
A wooden ear from an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus, with a three dimensional, gilded wrought iron support by Rourke.
Parker Lane is the site of Burnley’s Magistrates Court. The ancient wooden ear from the collection embodies ‘the person’ at the centre of the finely-made and immutable social structure of the law. It seems vulnerable. Its body is absent. ‘The person’ is a definition of responsibility in relation to the State, according to philosopher David Hume. ‘Personhood’ is a quantity to be retained, manipulated and used up, relative to the law. It carries with it a pathos that derives from the difference between this legal definition and our own experience of life, described by the different meanings of the word hearing: hearing is both subjective, lived experience and legally objectified adjudication. Wrought iron of the type made by Rourke has been used to signify this objectification for four hundred years. It is a commonplace of the visual language of the public structures of the law.
No comments:
Post a Comment