Kris Martin (b. 1972)

Appearing like a vast mountainous landscape from a distant land, Summit by Belgian artist Kris Martin is a poetic sculptural installation comprised of eight, found megalith-like boulders. Each rock, unique from each other at first seems unconquered, towering defiantly over the next. However, upon closer inspection, one notices that placed gently upon each summit is a small paper cross. Crowning each stone, these seemingly unexplored territories become possessed, colonized environments upon this realisation. By applying this charged and widelyrecognised signifier to his mountainous peaks, Martin wields its various meanings: has man finally learned the limit of aweinspiring nature? Or has one civilization merely dominated another? The limit,the peak, the apex - whether it is actual or abstract manifestations - are all concerns of Martin's Summit; as the artist has explained: 'The top is nice when you haven't reached it But once you get [there], the potential is gone. Dreams are what keep people going' (K. Martin, reproduced at the Saatchi Gallery website, reproduced at https://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/kris_martin.htm?section_name=s hape_of_things). Exhibited in two museum shows, at the Aspen Art Museum in 2009-2010 and at the Kunstmuseum Bonn last year, Summit is an elegiac and profound work by Martin, investigating the very genesis of human exploration.