The difficulty is not making a popular work of art, but making a piece of art with meaning. Many believe meaning comes from the viewer themselves, and I would agree. But I would deny this already being enough to distinguish the piece of art from a normal action inside any household. Don’t believe me? Then read on:
“I took a dump today” – Unknown author
Interpretation:
“Dump”, what does it signify? Some philosophers interpret this as the life cycle of trash, waiting at the garbage dump, unwanted and unmourned, but sometimes picked up by a Mexican passerby, thus becoming used and loved again. But my interpretation strays away from this simple child’s play of these so called “philosophers”. Dump in this context means the struggle of human excrement against the inhuman capitalists, wanting to press their unwanted “human material” into the underworld (in this case the sewers)!
We must further examine the implications which come with “taking a dump”. Most toilets in the world have the bad attribute of making shit stick to the marble surface just before the shit hits the water: The author clearly wanted to portray that not all shit goes inevitably down the drain, but there is a brown area which still holds on to the aforementioned quality of truth, struggling, clumping together and forming a massive shield capable of holding along against the marauding forces of evil. Tides and tides of fluid may wash away some stray unprotected parts of the brown masses, which have succumb to darkness after all, but the core can and will not vanish so easily! Valiantly the stain of shit -core splits incoming tides in two, just like Noah in the bible, but it has even more implications than that: The core symbolizes the people’s wish to work together to create a mutual understanding of one another, and its even composition tells us that only a great force may rip this strong bond of selfless trust apart! The author, in his ingenuity, makes no comment on how the dump was actually finished nor if the greedy capitalist decided to clean up after himself. Possibly the shit could survive, resting forever peacefully in the shade of the great toilet-lid, resisting wave after wave of further liquid with impunity forevermore! But alas the nature of toilets paints a dark future for our heroes.
A white demon rises above the rebels, as the ominous toilet brush descends on them, humanity screams as it is torn apart, the wielder’s face filled by dark hatred as he swings the weapon of mass destruction (Iraq war reference).
But what about the toilet brush itself? It is a feathered monstrosity, most likely resembling the Phoenix. As the Phoenix is a fiery bird unable to live in water, its life giving properties are negated as it is dipped into the water shortly before its work is to be fulfilled, thusly transforming it into Hades. The water then symbolizes the river Styx causing humanity to cross over to the glowing depth of hell itself!
After all the work humanity was unable to hold on, the author raises profound questions:
What am I fighting for?
What is the meaning of life?
Why must my life be so abruptly ripped apart my the workings of a man just interested in a clean toilet?
No answers are given, the reader must fill in these blanks for himself.
But is this the really end of this fascinating story? Perhaps the remnants still are floating somewhere, floating to a better land where honey and waste flows… Maybe they will soon be used to fertilize lovely flowers! Tears shoot to my eyes, thinking about how the dead pay their final tribute to the living by giving new life, even after all the hardships they have been through! Their valiant efforts shine to the very end, and even beyond!!
The elegance of the piece is not only underlined by its simplicity, but also through the use of artistic design principles, for example in the most important word “dump”. d and p are both the same shape, again symbolizing humans needing and having unison deep integrated into their soul.
Only the m seems to stray away from the wanted unison, perhaps signifying the evil thread in the human heart, stemming itself with all its might against happiness, the strands direction pointing towards the way humanity will go, down…. the drain.
I want to congratulate the author for such a bold effort to bring back art into our previously gray lives.
This piece is only weakened by humans inability to grasp such a fascinating concept. Bravo! Encore!
10/10
