Big Sucker

This work is an object for piercing into one’s body, like a leech or an octopus. Once it has been attached to the body, it continuously sucks blood. The octopus has several tentacles to reach all the sources it needs to satisfy its greed. While the piece is on the body, it becomes larger.
The concept for this work is based on an analogy between an animal who lives by sucking blood from another creature, and the big powerful countries permanently and unsustainably sucking natural resources from vulnerable countries.

The color black is a reference to oil, and the search for the increasingly rarer sources of this black gold. The object is formed with a large head as the main central body, immersed in black resin. Long, flexible legs reach from the head to a variety of search points (prospecting sites). The gold needles on the ends of the legs symbolize the countries with money, power, technology and knowhow that benefit from extracting oil and other riches (such as gold, diamonds and rare minerals).

The elegance and perfection of the object refer to the very correct and polite political language used to control and dominate vulnerable countries, forcing them into accepting the rules. That seems to be a new form of colonialism.