These Universal Totems look up to something we cannot see. They allow the grownup viewer to see children as children see grownups. They also allow children spectators to see themselves as grownups see themselves: improbably imposing, that is to say, overblown.

These sculptures are identical yet, mysteriously, at first glance, they do not appear so. In that they mimic our human identity; we are also mostly identical –as reflected in our needs and our metabolism, whether physical or emotional. Yet, in spite of that, we stubbornly insist in underlining -to the point of fighting viciously- the illusory chimera of our perceived differences.

The double title, Universal Totems or The Future is Small reinforces what the sculptures posit: to force us to see and feel that surely our most beneficial, healing models of the sacred and spiritual are vulnerable, still awed, young humans. They are the ones that have to carry all our human legacies into the future, genes & memes, for good or ill. In this disconcerting, dislocated times, these sculptures stand as a pluri-ethnic meditative tool we can all hopefully agree upon, identify with, and feel included by, whatever our surely trying story.

The Future is Small has been previously exhibited in the urban setting of Tarlabasi Bulvari in Istanbul, Turkey, during the winter & spring 2006. Recently, and more poignantly, as if highlighting East and West tensions by pure serendipity, three twin representatives of The Future is Small opened the ‘Fête de la Musique’ and are currently on show in the heart of Saifi Village, the residential area of Beirut’s recently reconstructed city center, where they will stay until the new year, circumstances permitting.

In the gutted and iconoclastic Chiesa San Agostino manifestation, the sculptures stand silently reminding us of the betrayal of innocence in the name of big ideas, bearing witness to contemporary wrath & destruction. The ancient songs of Eastern Christians & Sephardic Jews, two peoples representative of those especially challenged and defined by their dual or plural ethnicity, accompany the Totems. The music, so foreign & distant in time & space to its actual architectural environment, reveals itself as quite literally & viscerally intrinsic to it, forcing us to question perceived boundaries, the two languages & melodies melding into a seamless passion. The Totems’ boxes have become coffins, simple & anonymous like the ones we too often see on the front pages of the news. These totems are mourning their brothers in the east; their future just got unbearably smaller, the size of a wooden box. Beyond the coffin ritual lights are lit, but the white blank square behind it barely picks up the light.

Future planned public exhibitions of these sculptures during 2006/2007 include Barcelona & Madrid, Spain, as well as Amman, Jordan & Cairo, Egypt.

On show for the Istanbul Biennale & throughout the winter2005/2006 at the Cervantes Institute, Istanbul, Turkey

“The sculptures allow the grownup viewer to see children as children see grownups. They also allow children spectators to see themselves as grownups see themselves, that is: overblown.

Although the sculptures are identical they mysteriously do not appear so. Our human identity is also mostly identical, each of us with typically alike structures & needs, yet we relish and even fight for the illusion of our perceived differences.

The titles, Little Buddha, Bhuddito, Bhudette are a way to try and force us to see and feel that our most beneficial or healing models of the sacred and spiritual should perhaps be vulnerable, still awed, young humans. They are the ones that will have to carry all our human legacies into the future, genes & memes, for good or ill. Hence the show’s title “The Future is Small, Universal Totems”. In this disconcerting, dislocated, times, these sculptures stand as a pluri-ethnic meditative tool we can –hopefully- all agree on and feel included by, whatever our–surely trying- story.” Excerpt from the Istanbul Time Out