A Conversation with Dr. Gindi

SW

Dr. Gindi, the works in your new series Fractured Reality often appear as rugged creatural convexities through the agency of fierce narrative gestures, inflated portrayals of witless Sculpting Fractured Realitymortality, almost tragically vulnerable. Life appears like something that is done to us. Can you talk about why you are diving so deeply into this headlock of humanity?

DG

Well, I am not here to impress or to provoke through sketchy blowing with the wind. And I am aloof from the budding mockery ostensibly conceived by the observer. Rather I am searching for something much deeper, something that explains our daily suffering and eternal foraging. Whilst exploring the blind spots and open wounds of human nature, the series Fractured Reality seeks to recite dialogic prose to illustrate inner discontents – in all its conceivable facets and intensities. The characters shown in this clustered sequence Shame, Fear is Hunting You and Terrified! are concerned with the discovery of the causes of their misery; they are the enemies they battle. I believe that the firm apprehension of what those causes is essential to decipher the spheres within us successfully and to reach infinity finally.

Shame, Fear is Hunting You and Terrified! are portrayals of possible states of being in its hypothetical enmeshment that situationally let the depicted characters fulminate or silently implode, thus detaching them from the possible reclamation of infinity. As human beings, we are caged and confined in our revelation as unmediated flesh and bones; we are imprisoned by what we call our reality, a perforated haze that is shaping perceived human existence. Fractured Reality is a human position associated with shame, fear, and terror whilst living without knowing what to expect. In broad daylight, I want to illustrate such a fractured world so that those afflicted by it might be able to transcend it towards infinite balm. By doing so, I am modeling narratives on the everyday and ordinary of our suffering rather than a consistent hypothesis or a glorious feat.

SW

While we’re on this topic of human suffering, I am curious why you chose Shame as the title of the first work in your cycle, Fractured Reality. You created a twisted, elongated, and fragile character who crosses his arms in front of his head – an endearingly unsentimental view, especially coming from a sculptor who models the infinity of human existence. The sculpture makes me wonder what you think of the failures to live up to our ideals when we are losing face and shelling out on self-esteem. On what is our personal dignity based?

DG

First and foremost, I wanted to run the gamut of shame as an elemental human experience. Let me give you an agnostic definition of shame: Shame happens when we are treated by others as mere objects rather than sensuous beings upholding personal dignity. We are ashamed to have no value in the eyes of others or—on a more elementary level—to show our exposed flesh and pubic hair, to be naked. In my sculpture of the same title, shame looms up from the clouded silence, sensing the chant of the breathing glare. Frailty forms on the face of a nebbish character—rousing redemption, unlimited. Unlike vague disgust, shame is directed not toward other persons but towards ourselves. We cross our arms in front of our pitiful heads to ward off the gazes of others and finally to protect ourselves.

Shame in its different layers is almost a chimera and rather irrational, isn’t it? Let me suggest that rather than being something that is happening to us, life is something we create—we can get over the toxic shame that torments us. We shouldn’t see shame as wavering intimidation but rather as a useful stimulus for abiding dignity. Dignity—in my understanding—means that we all matter equally—there is no reason to be ashamed. Still, we need to accept that we are vulnerable and have nevertheless a fervid and everlasting value. We are as good as we are, as we thrive for infinity.

SW

You ardently aspire to illuminate every corner of human drifting based on the fissures of our inner self. Can you elaborate on your understanding of fear as a prodigious ground force that inhibits us? And could there be human endeavors based more on hope than on fear?

DG

I get a sense of fear lurking just beneath us. And I would go so far as to say that fear can prevent us from leading a normal life. The feeling of fear sometimes stems from real dangers, but it mostly originates from imagined threats. Human life seems to be solitary and nasty as everyone is at odds with everyone else; we permanently imagine hypothetical threats from others. 

Fear is perhaps the primary effect of human existence; it often involves both physical and emotional symptoms. We flee or freeze when frightened. Like in Fear is Hunting You:  A humanoid creature, a kind of nameless lurch, stirs us with piercing fury. Appallingly, there is no need for unbearable screams. The creature’s chained corpse is fed by a ghastlier fear—the unborn dawn. Fear is an ever-teasing and stabbing tribulation, making us do a diverse range of erratic things, often way out of proportion to the hazard posited by the object of fear.  

This leads me to your question about hope juxtaposing fear. All I know is that the first step to finding hope is to become aware of to what extent we are controlled by the fractured reality within us. We then can learn to deal with fear and to feel less fearful so that it doesn’t stop us from living our lives.

SW

Your work has a dystopian feel but is nevertheless rather serene as it has shimmering overtones of emotional catharsis. Is it your intention to vociferate the memoir of human cast-off-ness into an always perpetuating fractured reality? 

DG

This is an important question that you are framing, as you obviously noticed that I am not a Cassandra summoning our abandonment in daily abysses. But I am neither a Don Quixote for utterly the same reason. We are thrown into the perceived fractured reality that we instantly internalize, a bold metaverse where change is still and always possible. In my opinion, our lives are not being drained away from us – if we accept that we are in a state of flux without linear causalities. Let me perhaps explain this mischievous paradox by referring to my work Terrified! The character I created here feels mercilessly trapped. There is a sense of unrest that is palpable; his essence is filled with hollowed-out mud. Hidden in petrified desire, he is daunted by the glow that buries his underground caves. This fellow cannot run away, backward or sidewards, to a stauncher time, whereas living in the here and now seemed to be more coherent. But he could move forwards, as he is fluid in his being; he can find his own ways, living a life that is beyond terror.

SW

Well, you have been examining the perception of reality for a long time. Do you see your work functioning on an augmented psycho-philosophical level? Are we, as humans, able to escape our fractured reality?

DG

My sculpting practice is not akin to a closed theory in the truth-conditional conception of sense; it is not a means to an end – not implying that it might be gratuitous merriment, but that it is perpetually transformed by its amorphous drift. A central line of reasoning that I had reached through the very personal drift I have been exposed to is the idea that we lounge around in the world where we create and re-create ourselves. There are many possible and parallel worlds; they are created or created themselves; it is up to us to choose the most germane world for us – as nothing is ever what it appears. And we can respond to shame, fear, and terror by sailing through this world, knowing that life is all about offsetting the limbo of existence, and we recognize the dark; one must also consider the light.

I am not postulating, though, that we shall leave our fractured reality to reach something like a virtual or augmented reality; that would be too simplistic and something close to escapism. Still, the Real always goes beyond the sphere of the not-possible – we might explore and thrive on the fractured reality that is so infinitely related to us. We either remain tragically trapped in our eternal dilemma, or we step out into unlimited infinity. 

SW

What a great summary, Dr. Gindi. And yes, let’s step out into unlimited infinity. Thank you for this intriguing interview.