Recurring surface

I entered an artwork into Leamington Open, this: ‘A few rough hands, garden suburb’ but its back-up name is ‘recurring surface’ and I like that more now. It works better with what I was thinking about when I put it together: time/surface/ hands-to-materials and dislocation / Leamington’s scratch-the-surface regency vernacular. 

I liked it more when I first made it and less now because I put it up for ridicule. I can't help thinking that I should have daubed white on bits of it.  But I still like the brick looking as though it's holding up the wood when it's actually the other way around. 

I suppose I meant it to be sarcastic which is rather negative - but at the same time I've got the casts of the stone tool up there which I love and which are real survivors so I think that's positive. Putting them up with the brick I want to say they are all real survivors, at least, they've out-survived us by various removes. The wood plank between brick and stone tools is also a stand-in for the organic being - us. Apart from the stone tool casts the materials were found - by me by chance - as the string is time, crossing paths, bringing things together and I've left the all-important bit of grass in the fluffy end because via time objects gain stuff and that's a really thing. 

There is a bit of messing about with hierarchies - an object - organic - object sandwich and the human-related agent/object on the top, but in being replicated it's real-ness is under question. Like here the white plaster will blend into the wall at the pump-room galleries and sort of disappear and be a bit ghostly. I was wondering if I should have used more of the casts (I have loads) but I'm ok with five - there's no relevance in the number. OK. So overall, I'm alright with this work. I wonder if it will get in? It's a bit different from what they had in last year! Also, the fixings may prevent it from getting through. Ah, well, whatever they choose I'm happy enough with this.

Update. So it did get in to the open, great, and I get to see it again this Thursday and have another think. The think I'm having at the moment is around its readymade scavenged  elements, the brick, wood and string all doing the active, supportive work within the piece, and the cast of the stone tool - the nominal worker of the group - made passive, supported, diminished in duplication.