The work is a new iteration of a sculpture Alicja Kwade first developed several years ago, then incorporating bronze casts of chairs. In its current form, it has been reduced to its essential elements, bringing its underlying ideas into even sharper focus.

The sculpture explores questions of world order, power, colonization, and humanity’s attempt to construct systems that explain and organize reality. At the same time, it evokes the Tower of Babel – the human desire to reach the stars and the inevitable failure of universal systems of order.

The spheres are made from different types of stone originating from various regions of the world. They can be understood as geological samples of the Earth – witnesses to immense natural catastrophes, tectonic processes, and millions or even billions of years of planetary history. Balanced precariously on top of one another, they form a fragile equilibrium.

The work can also be read as a truncated abacus: a system that sustains and organizes itself, yet is incapable of reflecting upon itself. It asks how systems of order come into being, what they are built upon, and how fragile they ultimately are.