A Tower to the Heavens

In Chapter 11 of the book of Genesis, Nimrod decided that his city of Babel should 'have a tower so immense that it would have its top in the heavens.' The Tower of Babel, however 'was not built for the worship and praise of God, but was dedicated to the glory of man'. Man worked as a collective, with one universal tongue, striving to posses all knowledge, to remove all barriers, even trying to remove the ultimate barrier; to access the heavens by constructing the tower. God's punishment for this audacious act was that man would no longer work as a unit and would be scattered throughout the planet, the universal language confused.

We now find ourselves moving towards a metaphorical state of Babel. Through globalization, the reduction and removal of barriers between national borders, facilitating the flow of goods, capital and labour, the biblical story of Babel is parodied. Our blind ambition and thirst for ultimate control and power over the planet have taken a toll on the environment around us. It has led to the abuse of our planets' resources with little thought of the consequences.

This, site specific artwork of a Tower of Babel will use Wattle and Daub, a traditional technique for building shelters still used today. It will be constructed from renewable, natural materials taken from the Earth and returned to the Earth when degraded. These will be sourced from the location of the sculpture itself.