Pretentious Yet Pointless
Contrasts of pepper and honey march across the foreground of the carving. The sketch shares not only Sol Aris's death-identification but also his cosmic perspective and obsession with power. The emphatically factual experience of colour and space of Sol Aris's previous works are clearly visible here, but transformed.
The viewer is drawn by the extraordinarily refined aesthetic sensibility of the work into the world of duty, responsibility, discipline and work. The carving shares not only Sol Aris's death-identification but also his cosmic perspective and obsession with power. Unexpectedly, we see the short vertical line representing strength curve back and forth, suggesting unreliability. Such forms, intensely modulated, create complex and fascinating interactions with the self.
The artist avoids a rectangular grid to shape the colours, which therefore float free. Paradoxically, we see the leading centralism symbolising the self curve back and forth, suggesting inconstancy.
``This painting exemplifies the collage-like arrangements by which surrealist painters brought together apparently unrelated objects to create a striking visual poetry, intended to reflect the pattern of unconscious thought.''
[Tate Gallery Guide, 1990, p.162]