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Back to index of Nerve 18 - Summer 2011
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‘The Real Meaning of Life’ Exhibition
By Jimmy
Stanton
Photographs by Sebastien Gahan
If you wandered around the consumer palaces of Liverpool One in May you may have come across a strange sight. A giant living sculpture of the Green Wo/Man was standing there looking ready to reclaim the surroundings. The sculpture marked the site of Liverpool artist Dave Webster’s new exhibition ‘The Real Meaning of Life’, a sculptural journey through our evolutionary path. The 20 sculptures provoked questions about big themes, such as Politics, Science, over–consumption and racism. Sculpted in wood, re-cycled materials, fibre-glass and resin and bronze the works figuratively and literally depicted biological and cultural evolution. Hanging mobiles with quotes from philosophers such as Nietzsche and Aristotle emphasised these concerns.
The sculpture trail began with a single, tiny sperm meeting ova, through Mitochondrial Eve and Pericles to the final piece where a screaming head emerged from a mass of discarded electrical items. The centre-piece was a huge boat where Darwin and Wallace sat aside as a tree of life, its branches filled with hominid heads emerging from the centre. A huge banner with Biblical/ Monty Pythonesque text bore the title of the exhibition, ‘The Real Meaning of Life’. All the works were on a breath-taking scale in what was an excellent exhibition space.
The space was welcoming to groups from schools and the community, who enjoyed the artwork and engaged in discussions around the issues raised. Each piece was uniquely coded and those with sufficiently smart phones were able to bring up the artist giving a brief overview of the work. There was also weekly Philosophy in Pubs discussions on themes generated from the work.
Dave has been creating these works over ten years, funding himself through his commercial work. His aim is not to mystify but to engage visitors as directly as possible.
‘It’s not about mystifying people or being obscure. I want people to be inspired by the pieces and to provoke debate about our impact on the planet and each other. Visitors made their own connections with the work and questioned what our legacy will be.’
Before you stepped back out into the seemingly inescapable backdrop of consumerism, distraction and all it entails the final piece asked the simple but relevant question ‘What Next?’
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