Sandy Gibbs

He did not heed his father's warning (2010)

1 min 30 secSingle channel / Digital Video / Colour / Sound

"In a short and yet poignant essay on the artist Bas Jan Ader, Tacita Dean gently muses upon relationships between fathers and sons, water and death, falling and gravity. The essay is titled And he fell into the sea, and it starts with a quote "But the young Icarus, overwhelmed by the thrill of flying, did not heed his father's warning, and flew too close to the sun whereupon the wax in his wings melted and he fell into the sea".

It concludes; "But for Bas Jan Ader to fall was to make a work of art. Whatever we believe or whatever we imagine, on a deep deep level, not to have fallen would have meant failure."

This video work is in some way a response to sons and fathers: Bas Jan Ader and his father Bastiaan; to Donald Crowhurst and his son Simon; to the unnamed son of John Stonehouse; and to Roger Woodward, the seven-year-old boy who went over the Niagara Falls. To Chris and his son Josh. And to water, gravity and death."

Sandy Gibbs

Other works by Sandy Gibbs

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