Rindon Johnson, Fruit of the poisonous tree, Higher and more free! The music must always play, All the conventions conspire to make this fort assume the furniture of home; Lest we should see where we are, higher and more free! Lost in a haunted wood, What are the consequences of two different forms interacting? Ice on a bed of mint leaves. That’s what I thought in the early morning. Higher and more free! Breeze engine. If no is what it is then that’s what it is. Breeze Engine. Paint dries on walls. Bells chime at noon. Rivers flow through canyons. Enough. Enough. Enough. Enough. Enough., 2023

2023

Medium

Ash wood

Dimensions

420 × 67.5 cm

Status

In Gallery Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-156286

The sculpture “Fruit of the poisonous tree, Higher and more free! [...]” (2023) is made of ash wood and acts as a handrail leading into the exhibition. As infrastructure, it serves as a support while blocking direct access into the space. Johnson's recurring architectural interventions reflect social systems and their physical manifestations in space, referencing inequalities and exclusionary qualities. He addresses the consequences of these conventions and the underrepresentation of particular social groups in social structures. By guiding viewers through the exhibition in a performative act, he allows them to specifically experience the manipulation of architecture - such as the influence of a wall in the room or the opening “Examples: laughter in the morning and tears in the afternoon [...]” to the outside. Johnson creates a procession through the exhibition in which he breaks down convention. The asymmetrical geometric structure of the sculpture is based on the number five, which Johnson and Hamilton use as the basis of the novel “Clattering” to describe the multiplicity of possibilities and a collectivity beyond our familiar binary. In the science fiction novel, five characters are necessary to create offspring. "At some point I became very interested in what it might actually take to make a person. I wondered what if it took more people. What if we didn't replicate based on a binary but on a grouping of more people."