Sometimes, ‘existence’ is conditioned by ‘presence’. Confronted with street art, I have always tried to take a distant look at the works and see them beyond their possible meaning, as a bare action. They are usually anarchistic. Apparently, street art is a silent visible roar; someone anonymously dictating their being/existing to our vision. Hence, no matter in what form street art is done, it is the residue of a ‘performance’ and it should be experienced as an action. For this reason, Black Hand’s action engages me with a totally different experience. This work is certainly not of those waiting for a critic to be noticed by him or explained in writing. But what has happened here–by a mere attempt of self-expression–is the imposition of a halt on the blistering pace. The moment this hand is seen, the whole environment of the urban monument slows down, blurs and is lost, and the look of the viewer stands steadily on one spot and the pace is broken. It is on this very spot that the forefinger, after going down deep through the stone and glass of the statue, is then placed on the pupil of the viewer’s eye, pushing so hard that the finger pops into the brain. It is like the hand of Jesus nailed to the cross of city but instead the hand, it is the reflection of the subjective relationship between the viewer and the city that is bleeding. The recent violence exerted deliberately by this hand over the city, points not only to a more collective and major violence, but is rather a call for a healing to be applied to all fresh and old wounds; although the infection of the injuries is passing through the skin and flesh reaching the bones.
(This sticker was removed from the statue after a few months. See another picture here.)