Chain

The figures fly through space; for them there is no up and no down. They do not know how the flight will end. They take in every moment. They shape their bodies so as to steer the movement better. They hold together. They sense that as a formation they have more strength and better odds. As long as they are joined, all possibilities are open. They have not given up. That too is freedom. Without a single link the chain breaks and it starts again. Or else. They are flying upwards, and the tilt suggests as much. They can end the flight at any time. They have everything under control. In their world, tuned to the logic of dreams, that is possible. We watch their freedom with admiration. The sculpture Chain was made in 2009 as a commission for the town of Vitry-sur-Seine in Greater Paris for the Lilac Festival. I was already sketching the first drawings for it in the late 1990s, but I did not have the courage to make it. I was afraid of technical difficulties, which I then solved as I went along. In France the sculpture was called Partage. Chain is made of fibreglass. Inside each figure is a steel structure through which the figures are bolted together at the hands and shins. I rarely exhibit it, because installing it needs a ceiling over four metres high. Chain was made under great time pressure; I have never beaten that limit since.