Divided Power
Monumental spatial installation · 2017
- ArtistDavid Spriggs
- Date2017
- Dimensions3.2 × 3.2 × 3 m
10.5 × 10.5 × 10 ft - MaterialsPainted layered transparencies and metal framework
- ExhibitionBerlin Atonal
- LocationKraftwerk Berlin, Germany
Power held between unity and division.
Divided Power uses a fractured sphere as a metaphor for the structures through which power is concentrated and divided. The form retains the outline of a unified body while its sharp fragments suggest separation, pressure and competing directions. A vertical division runs through its centre, making the relationship between cohesion and fracture integral to the work.
The sculpture can be read in relation to political institutions, divided sovereignty and the tensions within systems that present themselves as coherent wholes. Power depends on alliances, hierarchies and divisions through which authority is organised. The sphere holds these relationships in an unresolved state. Its parts appear both bound together and driven apart, suggesting that internal conflict can belong to the structure of power itself.
Presented at Kraftwerk Berlin during Berlin Atonal in 2017, the work entered a former power station. That setting connected the metaphorical structures of political power with an architecture built for the generation and distribution of energy.
