The trick - SOLD
Richard Mudariki (b 1985)
The Trick - 2016
Acrylic on canvas
100 x 100 cm
Signed and dated bottom left
Sold - 2016
As a child, I enjoyed watching the magical trick commonly referred
to as ‘sawing’ on television. In this trick, a person - usually the
magician’s assistant - is placed into a wooden box, which conceals
the person’s body. The box is then sawn into two separate pieces.
This gives the illusion that the person’s body has been cut in half
- without any bleeding and with the person still alive - much to the
astonishment of the audience. Whilst the audience is seemingly
tricked into believing that the magician has some magical power,
the reality is that they have been deceived, as the trick is performed
by having two people placed in separate boxes. This scenario, is
much akin to the modern day world of politics and business in
which appearances and reality are not easily distinguished. On the
stage of business performance or political theatre, appearances
drive power or profit. Deception rules and the reality which lies
behind this facade is often not revealed.