Ursus Maritimus (for Loneliness and Introspection), 2024

Ursus Maritimus (for Loneliness and Introspection) (2024) comprises 700kg of liquid homeopathic remedy contained within an industrial Intermediate Bulk Container (IBC), materialising the weight of a polar bear through pharmaceutical absence. The work employs homeopathic principles as sculptural methodology, utilising an 18th-century remedy derived from polar bear blood and prescribed for "loneliness and introspection." The investigation centres on homeopathy's paradoxical logic where dilution equals potency: the less present something is, the more efficacious it is. Through extreme dilution processes called succussion, the original polar bear blood vanishes materially while supposedly retaining molecular memory within water. This creates what I term a "dormant, vanished homeopathic bear," existing simultaneously as presence and absence, material and immaterial. The artwork functions as critical commentary on contemporary preservation strategies and species loss. By returning this pharmaceutical polar bear to industrial containment, the artwork reveals parallels between homeopathic belief systems and conservation efforts: both requiring faith in invisible efficacy while confronting material absence. The IBC's clinical aesthetics contrast sharply with the mystical properties attributed to its contents, highlighting tensions between rational preservation methods and magical thinking. The work generates new knowledge about how artistic practice can materialise abstract environmental anxieties through pseudo-scientific frameworks. My methodology transforms sympathetic magic principles of ‘like cures like’ into sculptural investigation of human-animal relationships and ecological loss. The artwork affects audiences through confrontation with industrial containment, prompting consideration of what constitutes presence, memory, and efficacy in contexts of environmental crisis and species extinction.<p></p>