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My working process began with the concept of generating 1Kilowatt of energy through human means – with bicycles - to power the Living Memorial for Ken Saro-Wiwa. A limit of a kilowatt - what an electric kettle uses for instance - begs the question how significant is 1 kW to the huge amounts of energy consumed by the state and corporate structures which define our world. We seem defeated by the imbalances of scale today but crucially it is the faith in the small and personal that can make the decisive difference for change. The working process has been to extrapolate the kilowatt as far possible - the technology and symbols I have used are means to this end: the process of stretching, blowing up the 1kW to its visual limits, to somehow transcend the political and economic structures of the hydro-carbon age that traps our thinking.

The c60 carbon molecule symbolically structures my proposal. Discovered in 1985, the c60 carbon molecule is the most symmetric molecule known to us - the molecule with the largest number of symmetry operations possible. Throughout the ages, artists have intuitively hinted at the possible existence of such a structure; Leonardo da Vinci for instance drafted the 'truncated icosahedron' in his book De Divina Proportione.

In the Living Memorial, the c60 symmetry signifies simplicity, economy and boundless possibilities. I have used the c60 structure to create a memorial located in the sky – the space which bounds us all but evokes the boundless: awe and imagination beyond our control.
The relationship in scale of a c60 molecule to the Memorial’s physical form is of the same order as that of the Memorial to the Earth. The Living Memorial acts as a symbolic intermediary - between the inner and outer symmetry.

The Memorial in physical space works in parallel to a virtual space run by the Living Memorial server. This is also a space open to the public. Through the server the Living Memorial measures its environment and engages its public in a dialogue through the spheres. The material and the virtual work together to create a 21st Century oracle. The means of communication I have chosen for the oracle is poetry because poetry as an art form needs no quantifiable resources, but goes deepest to what is most intrinsically human. The process of communication can be through the most modern and most private means: a sms text verse sent from the Living Memorial for instance would leave a deep imprint in the mind and propagate the values of this art form in new ways and further the boundless vision in the work of writers around the world.

Saro-Wiwa - in his preface to ‘A Month and a Day: a detention diary’) - said that he preferred the use of the word Ogoni as opposed to Ogoni-land as ‘ the land and the people are one’, …‘it emphasizes the close relationship between the Ogoni people and their environment.’ In an environment such as London that presents us with both contradictions and challenges. Saro-Wiwa’s tragic life and work present a tableau for us to resolve these challenges in contemporary life, in our own way.

The Living Memorial for Ken Saro-Wiwa would stand for the Autonomy of people’s cultural lives in the highly mediatised, corporatised culture that we live in today.

As such the Living Memorial needs to recreate a symbol for everyday freedom based on the principles of integration and autonomy. Through the Memorial, these 2 things engage each other. The Memorial’s interactivity applies to both the medium and the message, the body and mind, the physical and communicative.

Further details of my proposal for the Living Memorial can be downloaded here.

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Siraj Izhar

Download Siraj's full proposal here
(PDF 1.3MB)

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