Same Shit Different Island, a sculpture by Joel Holmberg, is a thin, haphazardly bent-up metal beam supporting a rough chunk of concrete in the shape of, say, a long piece of petrified grey shit, which itself is held to the beam by a thin piece of fishing wire.
Also attached to this bent-up metal beam-armature are a small piece of wood and a second, relatively smaller metal beam element, which, in turn, each support a vertical leg of the larger metal beam-armature.
Before the sculpture is an object, it is – for the artist – a process which is designed to be replicated and reproduced through a broad spectrum of scales.
The work consists of the following 5 process-steps:
1. A beam is bent in three points, forming an armature.
2. Two wires span the uprights of this armature and a third, longer (and, thus, more deeply hanging) wire is suspended down the middle of the first two wires.
3. A tarp is stretched over the three wires, resulting in a hanging “hammock” form.
4. A cement mixture is poured into this hammock form.
5. After the cement dries, both the tarp and the outer two wires of the armature-form are removed so that a curved concrete shape (the piece of shit) is left suspended in air by the “third wire” which still spans the upright points of the beam.
One is, thus, provided with a blueprint for the creation of the “same shit” on “different island(s).”
As one evaluates the sculpture in terms of form, one evaluates it as a set of instructions as well.
It’s virtual art.