The Treachery of Mantras

The Treachery of Mantra

Emma

This installation is a piano made from remnants of my studio space. Except it isn't a piano is it?

Superficially it looks like a piano but it has very little in common with an actual piano. The sign above says "This is a piano" and the score repeats the slogan in a repetitive loop. If you repeat a phrase, a mantra, often enough, it both loses its meaning, and gets taken as a truth. Some repetitive slogans are good of course. "Mind The Gap" is helpful, "Get Brexit Done" - not so much. If you repeat a mantra often enough, some people will believe it, however vacuous. The shorthand slogan replaces critical thinking. And it's critical thinking that we need.

Mantras often form part of belief system.

Slogans often form part of a commercial industry