Power Toilet Death Masks
Power Toilet Death Masks is a set of molds for casting death masks of sanitary equipment: a toilet, a tap, a toilet paper holder with roll, a tile, and a flush button. The molds were made from objects found in the restroom at the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The restroom is a private space, accessible only to powerful people, in the headquarters of a global effort to curtail the effects of the climate crisis. Cast in unfired clay, the resultant sculptures capture a fragmented likeness of this space, as if it has been partially memorialized at the moment of its demise.
When exhibited, the sculptures may be reproduced and displayed in any number, in any combination. They are organized in patterns that have no immediately evident purpose, as if they were arranged for reasons that have now become obscure. Power Toilet Death Masks suggests a future in which human infrastructure has been put on display as an archeological curiosity. Our ingenious hygienic inventions have been given a second life in clay: a delicate, brittle material that will soon return to earth.