“Sometimes it feels like we fall into habituated patterns of behaviour that we’re incapable of extracting ourselves from. Heavily trampled familiar paths. We’re told it’s in our DNA, our book of life, a unique source code peculiar to one. Our history combines with our context and biology to cast our responses to any given situation. What happens when we discard this version of ourselves? What lies beyond the safety of this compacted trail? 'Beyond' articulates a potential portal that allows us to dream.”

This work was made especially for this auction, as a smaller work of a large scale commission under this theme.

One of the most substantial examples of his work is the monumental installation ‘The North Sketch Sequence’ at Chatsworth House. Jacob took the DNA of The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire and their son and daughter-in-law, Lord and Lady Burlington, and translated it into 650 large ceramic panels. The installation is an exploration of human identity, inheritance and ultimately an illustration of the human condition.

See here interview about Jacob’s installation at Chatsworth House for ‘Treasures from Chatsworth’ by Sotheby’s.