Project Summary

Project Reflection




‘Heathen’ has presented to me the recognition of the connections between my life and my work. The statement of ‘previous project reflection’ is somewhat untrue; the project is deeply rooted inside my existence and forms large parts of itself purely from this essence.

Drawing further inspiration from philosophers Soren Kierkegaard and Frederick Nietzsche who once wrote the life fulfilling theories of Existentialism.

This philosophical view encapsulates the individual, providing the basis that all emotions adjoined to the individual contribute largely as to how mentally secure they perceive themselves to be. There are many factors that interact with the individual being, how does one dictate what constitutes a fulfilling life? How does one achieve this quality of life? How does ones environment affect the self internally even considering the possible consequences of Gods existence or non-existence? As the outlook of the Existentialist is highly self orientated I would propose to continue from this point. Somehow the comfort and freedom gained from this isolation blankets the internal and external influences, in an ideal world where this philosophy can be applied to each person the possible outcomes would be unfathomable, this is yet another reason why I want to further persue this project.

The notion of survivalism has always been very close to me, I was taught from a young age how to look after myself if ever I was caught in a situation where I had to stay outdoors for long periods of time. My family on my mother’s side have been gamekeepers for generations and so I feel that it is important to understand that if you are willing to eat something you must also be willing to kill it. I began to understand when took a rabbit in to prepare for the exhibition, it was fresh that morning and whole. I wanted to share the preparation stage with other colleagues but the notion was met with some disgust and even horror once the rabbit was removed from the sack. My reaction to this was calm, ‘you’ll eat beef and that’s much bigger than a rabbit, this is nothing’ all to no avail, I was sectioned to the empty project space to carry out the deed alone. This experience has confirmed my belief that our society’s demands are too high, it would be too inconvenient to slaughter your own food, too messy and too much time. Meat is readily available in any supermarket, washed, packaged and ready to eat and this has been readily noted by health experts, chefs and food critics alike.

Unfortunately (at least from my point of view) western society is devoted to scientific, industrial and aesthetic led goals, to return to more basic instinct would be considered a savage step back and in some ways I agree, our progress as a species is astonishing, modern medicine and communication allow us to live longer, we can do and explain things our ancestors might of described as witchcraft but does this make us happy and content with our lives? Some would definitely say that this is wonderful but there is a part of me that longs for the reality that we had not progressed so fast. A part of my mindset that doesn’t care if I die young or if I get an incurable disease, just that I respected and loved my life aswell as those in it. My project is not simply a depiction of life and death, but also an appreciation as much as a celebration of the two.

This re-enforces my belief that we are all the results of Evolution, social and physical rather than the creations of a deity, if we were meant to ‘evolve’ into what we are now, myself and others like me are doomed to extinction, it is a fact that we are already a dyeing breed.

Perhaps it is a question of how we are raised. The behaviour to fend for ones self has been lost overtime and perhaps for some, this innate nature has been forgotten forever, the prospect of catching and killing their own food proves revolting. I still feel that being able to recognise as well as listen to your innate needs is vital. However I do not oppose the availability of food nor is clean packaging, of course it would be difficult for everyone to live from the land, the countryside simply couldn’t support the onslaught, however I still feel that more people need to open their eyes to what is available to them.

I have come to appreciate the balance of our workings, life and death are inevitable. Throughout the complicated entanglement in-between I can hope that these traditions will stay alive however I fear that that the traditions of survivalism are numbered and are doomed to become something of a novelty.

I make many observations and love to question. Much of my work consists of open statements, however for my third project I wanted to follow my questions, persue the answers and find the delicate balance stringy balance that we call life.

My materials I feel I must affiliate with myself. As before I chose organic materials, this stages a huge part in my day to day mantra.

What do I gain from this knowledge? From this project I believe I have come to understand the answer to the great question. What is the meaning of life? The answer is not simple because the question is misleading; it is posed by human beings searching for answers where there rarely are any. It is therefor a social question and raises our pedestal above that of the animal kingdom. What differs us from the ‘animals’ is that we developed self-knowledge and cognitive awareness this is an amazing achievement in itself and the human race has come far, but at the end of the day there is only one thing determined from birth, death. We live to die; it depends on what we do with our time that dictates our contentment with life. An appreciation of life’s balance has emerged from my gaining this knowledge and a curiosity of how people deal with life’s processes. Much like in ‘Proverb’ my ideas are rooted from my experiences of life, as an observational person I watch people and my surroundings and am constantly aware of movement.

As my work progresses step by step, I aim to document each thought in the form of a journal, online blogg and sketchbook, both my journal and sketchbook are kept with me at all times incase of any spare time whilst I’m not working, any ideas which occur are duly noted.

As my work stands, until my ideas are furthered I will test them against the theories of Kierkegaard, when undergoing further research into Existentialism, I found that Christianity caused some controversy as to whether it could appear significant in an individuals life. Fellow German philosopher and psychologist Friedrich Nietzsche shared very similar ideals, although they held very little or no knowledge of eachother they both were considered to be Existentialists and condemned the church for its perversion of the Christian faith. This is the next lead in my research development that I would like to persue.