The artist was inspired by the search for meaning and its relation to the difficulties of experiencing unhappiness. The trick with depression is the impossibility of seeing the object of our discontent. In one particular sense, depression is a blinder for the human mind; it is a blinder from joy, or contentment. We may continue to work, even continue to derive meaning in our work, yet we are blind to any sense of fulfilment. We’re starved of love, of friendship, of happiness, the words written in braille by the nail heads facing inward. Superficially, while we may continue with our work and searching for meaning, all we are met with is pain, depression, and the sharp words written in braille on the external face of the plank.
This piece of art, the walnut lumber, is an allegory of both the external world and the individual itself. It is meant to be handled, carefully, to be read in ways tactile and visual. A mirror is used as the backdrop to make visible what is written in the wood. Reality is more than a sense of the visual; the mind is more than a sense of outward experience.
