Split Fountain

Hany Armanious is a sculptor who explores ideas of doubling and artifice through the transformation of objects. Utilising the process of casting, he creates simulacra of insigificant everyday objects, investing them with enigmatic value. Fastidious explorations of form, they are often decorative as well as humorous. 'Split Fountain' takes the form of a small, carved bedside table with spindly legs and pewter handles. It is a fully cast object, one which appears at second glance to possess facial features and to be strangely animated. 'Split Fountain' was shown in his 2009 exhibition Uncanny Valley, the title alluding to 1970s research into robotics by the Japanese roboticist, Masahiro Mori. When charting public attitudes toward robots with human attributes, Mori found that as the robots became more life-like, people’s empathy with the robots increased; but as the robots’ appearance improved and they became more human-like, unexpectedly people’s attitudes switched sharply from empathy to repugnance.