THE STONEBREAKERS
By Nicky Broekhuysen
The exhibition, ‘The Stonebreakers’ is a reference to the 1849 Realist painting by French
artist Gustave Courbet depicting two peasants a father and a son labouring on the side of
a road breaking rocks. ‘The Stonebreakers’ by Courbet, a huge monumental work, shows
the harsh often brutal reality that the peasant class faced at the time. By choosing them
as his subject matter, Courbet elevates the peasants to that of an equal status alongside
the upper ruling classes, previously the sole subject matter of such paintings. This is a
Social Realist work, where Courbet uplifts the status of the everyday people during a
time when the ruling class feared the potential power of the peasantry.
Deeply connected to the social and political context of the time Courbet’s Stonebreakers’
depicted not only a shift but the breaking down of the status quo. We too now find
ourselves amidst such a shift with events such as The Arab Spring and social and
political movements gaining momentum all around the world. It is the idea of interconnectedness where social media with in today’s digital age is proving to be the vehicle
for social and political change.
Using binary numbers 1 and 0 as ‘building blocks’ of form in my work, I use binary code
as a metaphorical language, which reflects this digital context. Binary code also
represents data, information and meaning collected and stored from society. This
information not only forms the basis of our ideas and beliefs but also the social and
political structures that we subsequently build from them. The idea of potential
therefore forms a cornerstone to the exhibition. Binary code as a system depends on
how the numbers 1 and 0 are arranged, however the numbers can continually be shifted,
re-arranged to form new meanings. The potential for change is ever present. The idea of
chaos and order is also present in this change as represented in the work ‘When The
Dust Settles’. A giant pile of binary numbers, the chaotic aftermath of a fallen structure
or the building blocks of a new structure waiting to be built, both possibilities exist. This
metaphor of ‘a pile’ suggests a temporary identity; its existence is only there as
something transient. It is up to us to decide what becomes of it.
Every action towards change requires a release of energy or force as the three works
depicting volcanic explosions suggest in ‘The Stonebreakers’. A paradox of not only
destruction, a volcano also has the ability to ‘construct’. This idea of binary forces, coexisting and feeding each other in a metaphorical language of progress and opposition is
also relevant as we seek to build new realities from the resulting chaos of fallen
structures.
Binary code essentially is a system of logic yet ‘The Stonebreakers’ takes this ‘logical
system’ and makes it completely illogical. Never are the numbers coded, they exist
forever in that transient moment between fixed states. They remain open, ambiguous
spaces where the unknown is forever present. This is seen in the three abstract works of
‘The Stonebreakers’. Like doorways or openings they ‘break through’ the 2-dimensional
space, inviting the viewer in.
‘The Stonebreakers’ alludes to the idea that nothing can remain static. Systems,
structures, ideas, beliefs, all must remain open and dynamic ready to be questioned,
evolved and re-built, a dynamic state of change where nothing is set in stone.