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| Summit, 2009, found stone, paper crosses, ink, Saatchi Gallery, London |
A simple paper cross, a symbol redolent in meaning, from religion and death to territorial domination and colonialism, transforms a large, found rock - earthy and primitive - into a great mountain with towering cliff-faces.
Eight such pieces make up the work Summit, an experiment in perception and a testament to the futility of human ambitions. "The top is nice when you haven't reached it,” Martin has said. “But once you get [there], the potential is gone. Dreams are what keep people going.”
Each monolith with its flimsy token to land conquered becomes a silent memorial to human dreams, forgotten and achieved; to the sublimity of nature, and the inevitability of death.
“For me, they're all very dangerous, mountains… They're filled with a dangerous power, especially for puny little human beings, like we are.”
Currently showing in the exhibition The Shape of Things to Come: New Sculpture at the Saatchi Gallery in London.
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