Between heavens and morality | plaster, tree and a live gold fish | 5 x 3.5 x 2.5 m | 2016

 

The human has always seen themselves as the center of existence and all other creatures are meant to serve his purposes. This is seen in the way we conceive our religions and societies and put all other beings at our services. Ehsan Ul Haq's work is about the human being’s existence in the world in relation to its kind and to other living and non-living beings. Ul Haq studies how the human constructs the other, model it in a way that enables humanity to then frame itself and survive, leads to exercises of existential, economic, political and social powers.

This goes hand in hand with the kinds of roles we assign to certain animals in relation to us humans. These roles are most of the times our projections towards these animals. Take the example of the lion, which human has chosen to be the most powerful animal out there. As a sign of man’s own power, man equates him-/herself to the lion, or tends to subordinate the image of the lion, so as to appear stronger.  This can be done f.e. by using the pelt of the lion as a carpet, or making a flower pot lion. Ul Haq’s sculpture of an oversized 3,5m tall lion, in which a 2m tree is planted is one of such projections. In the belly of the lion is a golden fish in a glass. Another projection of man’s loneliness in a world of ever increasing distances of proximity.

Ehsan Ul Haq’s work is a meticulous observation and vivid narration or attempt at depicting humanity’s basic characteristics of survival, i.e. the ability to observe, identify, recognize and comprehend. By putting a spotlight not only at the relations between for example the human and animals or human and other humans, but also on the power gradients that make up these relations, Ul Haq reveals the manipulative nature of the human being, embedded in his wish to classify, name, control, and subordinate.

 

The Project was a part of Public art programme "In age of our own making" at Holbaek, Denmark.

 

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