Monday, Wednesday and Evening 2007. Alabaster and steel cable. 3 x 2.5 x 0.4 m.
Once upon a time
The description should
be enough
A palace
On the ground
A pearl necklace
the thread of your steps
and the rustling
Luis Armand
This work was created from an article about the 'pearl necklace' symbol written by Roland Goffin in 1998:
THE PEARL NECKLACE AND THE UNION CHAIN
Based on what we have just pointed out, each "being", considered in its individuality, can be symbolically represented by a "sphere", as René Guénon has so aptly explained in The Symbolism of the Cross.
In the symbol of the "String of Pearls," this circular alignment of adjacent spheres, we see that, in this manifested form, they are nothing more than a succession of perfectly isolated individualities, in no way united by themselves. Moreover, how could it be otherwise, since the birth of any "being" is the product of a "principle of individuation"? There is also talk of the "sphere of influence" that each being can claim to possess. It is equally noteworthy to observe in this figure that the different spheres can only come into contact through a single, almost immaterial "point"—in other words, they can only come into contact in a place of non-manifestable "communication." The volume of the sphere is the largest of all solids with the same surface area. We see, therefore, that the "individuals," who naturally tend to occupy the greatest space, presenting the greatest possible surface for exchanges, are reduced, on the contrary, to being unable to communicate with their fellows except through a geometrically dimensionless point.
However, the symbolism of the necklace reveals to us that the "pearls" are connected by a thread that passes through the "center" of each one. If our pure intellect concentrates on this "meditation," it makes us understand that it is impossible to unite men in any way other than by their respective centers, and not even by their intertwined hands. Thus, the recognition, followed by the "knowledge" of one's own "center" by each person is the only thing that can engender the notion of "fraternity," because man is absolutely of the same nature as this "center" and because he comes from the same "source," as the "thread" that unites the "pearls" expressly indicates. For, even when the thread "breaks," the pearls do not lose their "center," thus identified from now on.