Self

A good few months ago now, I was looking in the Technical Bookshop in Riccarton on Clarence Street by the mall. I went in looking for some of those 1960's Vogue mags (completely the wrong place for that kind of thing) but I did find a book on identity and the self which I thought was quite interesting. It's called 'The Ego Trick - What does it mean to be you?' by Julian Baggini. It sort of sounds like a terrible self help book but it's really not. Baggini is founding editor of Philosopher's Magazine (personally, I've never heard of it but it sounds pretty interesting) and in the book talks to theologians, priests and lamas as well as neurologists and psychologists to get different takes on what the self is. I'm almost half way through reading it and I'm loving it. It is so interesting!

Anyway. Through reading this I've had lots of different ideas that kind of illustrate some of the ideas said in the book, but are also kind of metaphorical. One particular paragraph really stood out to me:

"So what could explain the strange combination of fragility and robustness that characterises the self?

The answer is perhaps that the fragility is the strength. A pearl may be hard and distinct, but smash it and it's utterly destroyed. A composite or amalgam, on the other hand, is of it's nature a collection of things. That means items can come and go, or be damaged, without necessarily terminally destroying the character of the whole."

That is quite possibly one of my favourite paragraphs I have ever read. How he has worded it is so beautiful.

With this idea in mind, I broke things. I smashed a few plates and a couple of vases; things that are both fragile but strong at the same time. We know that if a plate or vase is dropped, it will smash, however when they are doing what they're suppose to do, they're strong. After completely ruining and breaking the structure of these things, I put the pieces back together, but some pieces were missing or ended up being slightly mismatched, however the original structure and purpose of the items is still able to be seen. They are broken entities, but are still able to function as their original selves.

Abbey Proctor, 2011, Fragile robustness I [digital photograph]

Abbey Proctor, 2011, Fragile robustness II [digital photograph]

Abbey Proctor, 2011, Fragile robustness III [digital photograph]