TERMINUS

Geoff Farquhar-Still

July 3rd - August 15th 2009 | CCAS Goman

In Terminus, Geoffrey Farquhar-Still’s twin heaps of ash-white rubble reveal themselves on closer inspection to be made of familiar objects cast in concrete. In one pile, there are 3,500 concrete matchbox cars; in the other, 1,500 concrete light bulbs. The cars, as toys, may be relics of a personal past the artist’s play-box nostalgically spilled and we take a certain pleasure in the homely, miniaturised object over which we remember having exercised absolute power. The car, in the hand, free to ride over any surface, to fly even, and as often as we like ending in a fantastically violent smash-up. As a prophetic token, however, the funerary mound suggests the terminus or endgame of the internal combustion engine: a billion-car planetary pile-up, so to speak, that we know we are heading towards yet continue to drive into with abandon. (Jospeh Falstone, 2009)

Image: Geoff Farquhar-Still, Reflective Car, 2009, mixed media