Rings by Brune Boyer

The further I go, the clearer I see how people want to belong, and there are more and more of them. Those who protect their freedom like a dragoness protects her egg are also part of that ’community of misfits’, as Alphonso Lingis would say, but this is not about them. People seek belonging, attachment, they attach themselves and they want someone to attach themselves to them — someone, at least a dog. I never thought that the patron saint of these attachment-seekers might be Prometheus, who, according to legend, was freed by Zeus on condition that he always wore a ring made of the metal of his chains and with a splinter of rock for an eye. A mythological headband that is a constant reminder of suffering and captivity. Or of that fire-bearing, of flight and punishment.

Brune Boyer (France) exhibits rings that are not meant to be worn on the fingers, that usurp both palms and seek the attention of the wearer. It is a kind of derivative form of the ring, following the incarnation of the ring. The pyrite and quartz in place of the eyes of the ring remind us of that rock. I cannot help thinking now – where in the Caucasus Mountains was that rock? After all, we know where Mount Olympus is, so why would it not be possible to locate the rock? And does that rock remember Prometheus? In any case, the minerals found in the Brune Boyer Mountains remind us not only of Prometheus but also of our quest for belonging. Everything I have I carry with me, said the poet. Even if it’s a mountain set in a ring; after all, no one knows the size of each of our personal rocks, the tiny splinter of which we carry on our fingers.