Death of the Ferryman, Victoria's Way, RoundwoodDecay
Black Granite 250cms

The ferryman’s craft lies dead in the water. He can no longer reach the ‘other’ shore. Unable to touch, he can't make real, he dies.

The sculpture represents the internal state of the disconnected human. Because reality happens as after-affect of momentary contact, loss of connectivity (i.e. of touch) brings with it not only decay of the sense of realness (i.e. of being), but also of consciousness (i.e. of relativity) and the joy derived from it.
Disconnection is inevitable because connection is momentary, therefore not conserved. For a human to stay alive, i.e. to be real, conscious and joyful (i.e. self-realized), she must continuously touch or be touched. Only an ‘other’ can touch.
In the case of the ferryperson, his/her death is voluntary. He/she is prepared to remain in situ to allow others to pass over him/her so that they might rech their goal. In short, the end of a truly spiritual life is a sacrificial death.


The human who stands still, who holds, decays and dies.