Benchpress, image by Rupert M. Loydell
THE WAY THE ARTIST CHOOSES
for
Lawrence
Brigadier
Benchpress
aka The Meter Man
is responsible for pulling the weeds up
each morning, before making breakfast
for the regiment of his dependents.
No-one is authorized to take his place,
he schedules all the activities and sets
the calendar, starting time and pace
of each and every day. He is on his way
to a heightened sense of decorum,
currently manufactures many works
influenced by his childhood dreams
of material expanding into space.
His are crack troops, involved in
art festivals, exhibitions and projects
too secret to name. Benchpress is
creating a complete world of art,
disguised as a garage of old cars
and a scruffy family home. He narrates
the forms of life and the nature of death,
how rust and oil consume metal,
how expensive acrylic paint is,
how he despairs of people in general,
and pursues wisdom and creativity,
old steam trains to take trips on.
Tormented
by absence and anxiety,
he
attempts to break the still surface
of
our consciousness, to stabilize,
restrain
and protect. All his threats
are
silent, his memories will fade
tomorrow,
but we will be left with
knotted
and transformed language,
imitating
the unconscious, lines
drawn
on canvas when words fail
and
spectators cannot articulate.
Colourful
retrospectives of meaning
demand
new purpose for self and time,
transmit
life to those who have not
been
seduced by digital space.
Benchpress
offers us information
about
invisible and visible boundaries,
ways
to leave traces of belonging,
ways
to engage with ourselves.
The
world is infinite with no horizons,
only
marks created by our hands.
—Rupert
M. Loydell
