“What is the outcome of an irresistible force meeting an immovable object?” A journalist once used the phrase to describe a meeting between the actors Clark Gable and Greta Garbo. It refers to an ancient philosophical paradox arrived at when both the force and the object in question are supposed to be, respectively, omnipotent and indestructible. In order for the force to be ‘irresistible’, the object would have to be movable; yet if the object was really immovable, then it cannot be true that the force is irresistible. It isn’t possible for each proposition to be true at the same time. In order for each description to be true, there needs to be some failure in the other. The only possible alternative is that object and force are implicitly one and the same thing.

Inspired by the notion, Fowler brings life to the paradox through the figures of Clark Gable and Marlene Dietrich, depicted in an imagined rendezvous. Does the sheer power of each actor’s presence negate the other’s existence? Or are they one and the same? The work toys with the idea of a cosmic balance between man and woman as god and goddess of the screen, exuding elegance, attraction and force. The figures of Gable and Dietrich are cut around, bringing them into relief and adding a rich sculptural element to the work.