A gully of space intervenes between one side and the other in this new edition of sculptuations, To stare at a stare ‘x’ steps away. Real space is part of the artwork — and isn’t. Real space is the void we avoid,¹ three-dimensional as opposed to two-dimensional. Saying that, though, doesn’t help extrapolate on the space in these new works. Especially as two- and three-dimensional space are effectively the same in that both exist outside us. Saying they are different to each other is just that, ‘saying’.  Amidst this epoch of conspiracy theories, saying one is real and the other is an illusion of the real may be the conspiracy that outstrips all others for centuries. Or is it?

For saying they are different is up against the fact that two- and three-dimensional space are the same when treated as the outside of us inside. Both two- and three-dimensional space amalgamate to become the thing we perceive as opposed to us, the one perceiving it. Subjectivism is primed to treat everything outside us as a potential fiction in this way, ready for manipulation. And into this gulf between the perceived and perceiver many a philosopher has wandered never to return — often thousands of words later in treatises and theories.

Yet, into this gulf we are borne — daily. If not minute by minute. Second by second of every minute by minute. And it’s terrifying. In other words, there’s no such thing as an alternative to engaging with the space external to us. As though we tackle the void only sometimes, such as during the day, while at night we take a break from its threat.

The philosopher Richard Boothby recently observes that the digital world has addictively become a mediating link with the void as the unknown Other. Boothby writes: ‘It provides a compelling, even fascinating semblance of the Other-Thing while dulling the hard edge of its anxiety-producing potential. The online experience delivers a tincture of the unknown Other while allowing the screen gazer to remain cocooned in a private space. The abyssal dimension of the Other is reduced to mere tourism of the Unknown’.²

To stare at a stare is a small exhibition of works that see the situation differently. Agreed, real space is terrifying. It is, however, also life giving. For into this gulf we are borne, daily, but also born.

Pure being and pure nothing are therefore the same. The truth is neither being nor nothing, but rather that being has passed over into nothing and nothing into being – “has passed over,” not passes over.³ 
Hegel

Gail Hastings
6 August 2025

1. Richard Boothby, in Embracing the Void: Rethinking the Origin of the Scared, in the Diaeresis series (Slavoj Žižek, Adrian Johnson, Todd McGowan), Northwestern University Press, 2023, p. 32.
2. Richard Boothby, p. 33.
3. Hegel, G.W.F, The Science of Logic, Trans. G.Di Giovanni, Cambridge University Press, 2010, p. 59.