Presented in the form of a mine, most notably styled on the Orsini bombs which were notoriously used to attack the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Paris, in an attempt to assassinate Napoleon III in 1893, here the detonation triggers are sprinkler heads. Beyond the dichotomy of danger and safety and the tensions therein, the work is imbued with so much more meaning.
The title hints at a critique of the all encompassing and overbearing presence of technology in our daily lives, but, if we delve deeper into the makeup of this work, we are informed that it is filled with a red liquid that expands when heated, which may lead to a release of this liquid via the sprinkler valves. We may therefore be observing a safe bomb, designed to counteract the worst outcomes of mankind’s activity.
More on Omniscience in Circa review ➔ and Dialectic of Enlightenment essay ➔