Water Wears Away the Concrete

There is a saying: "A drop of water wears away stone with persistence." This is a line from a poem by the ancient Greek poet Cherilus. The phrase entered European culture thanks to the Roman poet Ovid. In his "Letters from Pontus," he wrote: "A drop hollows out stone." In a collection of sayings by ancient authors compiled in the 15th century by the Byzantine scholar Michael Apostolius, these words were presented as: "A drop, continuously falling, hollows out the rock." The driving force behind such persistent actions is the will and the desire to achieve a goal. Arthur Schopenhauer, in his major philosophical work The World as Will and Representation ("Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung"), argues that will is the fundamental reality of the world, akin to a blind, unrelenting force that drives all motion and change, motivates our existence, and can be irrational and infinite, leading to conflicts.

In this photograph, we see a stream of water, which with its weak flow erodes a concrete beam, symbolizing the meaning of the work's title and demonstrating the idea conveyed by the visual image, as reflected in ancient proverbs and philosophical concepts—that even a weak but constant influence can lead to significant results.

© VarrIng, 2024