Selma Selman

While expectedly violent, the action was nevertheless carried out with surgical precision, elegantly even, as the artist and her aides proceeded in taking the machine apart bit by bit. The journey might be postponed, for now. Yet a transformational act has taken place. A process that might at first be perceived as destructive, becomes a metaphor for creation as the metal (alchemically) becomes a means towards self-realisation. Roma communities throughout South-Eastern Europe are often associated with metal work which is an important craft, and trade, an essential part of local micro-economies for collecting scrap metal and recycling the material. The artist thus elevates a dismissed, frowned upon occupation to the status of art. She reverses common stereotypes about race, class and gender, leading her team, yielding her tools, in a fully controlled and self-assured manner, not least with a sense of humour. With a nod to the cult classic The Matrix, the heroine emerges triumphant, like Venus from a sea of scrap metal.