The Trifot Sculpture

David Cerny – Trifot Sculpture

David Cerny basically does three types of sculpture. It’s either an artistic commissioned work or it’s artistic commissioned work where David Cerny inserts a protest message or it’s an outright protest piece. Trifot, mostly made of stainless steel and standing 12 metres (40 feet) tall, is commissioned with a protest message within it so let’s see how others have described and/or interpreted it.

Why the Name Trifot?

Wow, search around the internet and you’ll find loads of sites that associate Trifot with Triffid i.e. the walking plant from John Wyndam’s book, Day of the Triffids. Spoiler Alert: anybody that’s ever taken a look at Trifot will know that it has TWO legs with TWO supports to the sides that look a bit like crutches so the most we can say is that if a Triffid did inspire David Cerny then it was a disabled Triffid. What about breaking the word into Tri-Fot. In Czech this would be a kind of slang that means “three cameras” but again, a closer look at Trifot reveals 10 different cameras. One site mentions that the cameras detail the changing technology of photography over the last few decades but again, Trifot has huge replicas of real makes/models of only vintage cameras. Personally I think the name Trifot is a combination of “fot” a kind of slang word for a camera and “tri” because the company that commissioned the sculpture is called “Trigema”. Trigema is a property developer that owns a lot of the land and buildings in this area.

The Real Interpretation

david cerny trifot sculpture in prague with multiple vintage cameras and eyeball lens standing 12 metres tall with supports — The Trifot Sculpture in Prague

The moving mechanical actions of the “Lens” made to look like eyeballs on Trifot actually make it feel that they are following you and recording what you are doing. This is not far from the truth as Trifot is capable of both filming your movements and having these movements displayed on nearby screens. So the interpretation of this particular piece is David Cerny warning against the ever-growing presence of the government wanting to know where people are and what they are doing i.e. the big brother state.