La Révolution devrait faire pour le peuple ce que le Cubisme a fait pour le couteau, la fourchette et la cuillère 1998

Curator: Looking at Ian Hamilton Finlay’s intriguing piece, "La Révolution devrait faire pour le peuple ce que le Cubisme a fait pour le couteau, la fourchette et la cuillère," it strikes me as rather unsettling, almost surreal. A disembodied... turtle shell? With a peculiar grid inside. Editor: Yes! It's arresting isn't it? Finlay, always the provocateur. He conjures an almost visceral response. It’s about the revolution transforming daily life, echoing how Cubism shattered conventional perspectives. Curator: So the shell…is that a vessel? A container for the fractured forms of Cubism, or perhaps the shattered expectations of revolution? The hard carapace juxtaposed with the fragility within. Editor: Precisely. Turtles often symbolize longevity, protection, even wisdom. But here, the shell is a cage, a deconstructed space. A revolution that promises to dissect and rearrange the tools of daily life, perhaps not always for the better. Curator: A potent, if unsettling, image. He is warning us of potential violence implicit in remaking society, of something lost in that process. Editor: It’s a call to approach change with eyes wide open, to question what’s truly gained and what might be carelessly discarded in the revolutionary fervor. Makes you think doesn't it?