The Eye and the Arm

The fundamental advantage of the Panopticon is so evident that one is in danger of obscuring it in the desire to prove it. To be incessantly under the eyes of the inspector is to lose in effect the power to do evil and almost the thought of wanting to do it. Jeremy Bentham The Panopticon that appears in the diptych keeps to the same original architectural structure but after decades functioning as a prison, it has been abandoned by the powers that be. Nonetheless, it continues to be inhabited by vagabonds and immigrants, visited frequently by graffiti artists and metal collectors … but now as a voluntary act. Pure reason fails again, leading one to assume that the instinct to escape, to survive is stronger than the most elaborate of reasons. El Ojo y El Brazo (The Eye and the Arm) is a title that imbues the building with the air of being an entity with its own being. Its transformations include not only that of from order to Chaos. The eye of power and its arms also fill themselves with works of art, files, old people, commercial centres among other things.