The material is heavy rubber or Bakelite.

Peter Mutschler, who runs PSsquared, handed in a few objects on the first day, just to get me started before anyone from the general public found us. Since one of the objects, a broken toilet flush tank from when the pipes had frozen the last time, was so obviously a ready-made toilet furniture, given to me by a fellow artist, I just had to make an homage to the Fountain.

Will probably end up in the toilet again.

Apart from the joke of course, I also wanted to take the opportunity to point out a real problem. Most of the heavy day to day lifting in the art world is done by individuals who do all of, or most of, their work for free. The rewards they get is social and artistic, and surely much more gratifying than money. The problem, however, is that our society doesn’t recognize charitable work as worth anything, so when these people grow old they end up on the minimum pension. Even though they spent years and years helping other people realize their dreams, and gave their communities the basic structures necessary for a cultural life, these same communities will do nothing to thank them at the end of their careers. As long as you work charitably in a community, you will be part of this community and feel much more connected than most people just going about their daily chores, since you interact with so many different people in different roles. This changes dramatically the day you retire, especially since the consequence of extreme poverty is not only the lack of stuff and security, but mostly also social isolation. This is not just because of how we morally value poor people, but also because it is almost impossible to move about or do anything in our society without spending money. So, the next time you come to PSsquared, as a visitor or as an artist, make sure to use the toilet, and drop a contribution in the box.

Be sure to ask for it next time you visit PSsquared

Object no. 4