Be Patient
Kate Pendry
Be Patient is a rare artwork. It is simple yet profound, easy to understand yet complex, deeply personal yet not private. The viceral symbolism of barbed wire is used to depict a letter of rejection from the Norwegian immigration department. The letter it scaled to giant, razor sharp size to emphasise the brutality of such bureaucratic formulae.
Simply put, if you are waiting for asylum, your life is not only on hold, but by extension in the balance. The letter you receive can mean life or death. The banality of bureaucratic office speak comes through in all its indifferent cruelty with the soundtrack accompanying the piece, indeed one could call it the titular soundtrack. The constant, almost torturous refrain, be patient, which forms the bassline of undermanned governmental telcommunications.
In the context of Qaradakis piece, this mantra can feel like telling an inmate on death row to be patient while he or she waits for execution or reprieve. That notwithstanding the work contains one the main characteristics inherent in all Qaradakis output... great humilty, humanity and heart.
The work is, in its truest and humblest sense, monumental.
Be Patient is a rare artwork. It is simple yet profound, easy to understand yet complex, deeply personal yet not private. The viceral symbolism of barbed wire is used to depict a letter of rejection from the Norwegian immigration department. The letter it scaled to giant, razor sharp size to emphasise the brutality of such bureaucratic formulae.
Simply put, if you are waiting for asylum, your life is not only on hold, but by extension in the balance. The letter you receive can mean life or death. The banality of bureaucratic office speak comes through in all its indifferent cruelty with the soundtrack accompanying the piece, indeed one could call it the titular soundtrack. The constant, almost torturous refrain, be patient, which forms the bassline of undermanned governmental telcommunications.
In the context of Qaradakis piece, this mantra can feel like telling an inmate on death row to be patient while he or she waits for execution or reprieve. That notwithstanding the work contains one the main characteristics inherent in all Qaradakis output... great humilty, humanity and heart.
The work is, in its truest and humblest sense, monumental.