2020, 8ft. X 8ft., Silicone, synthetic/ horse/ artist’s hair, tattoo ink, steel, motors, plywood, found clothing, screen printing ink, zip-ties

Four life sized figures are present in a circle, and they are all committing group suicide. Each figure has a scythe over the neck of the person to their left, making a daisy-chain in the act of beheading one another, the scythes going clockwise in their positioning and cuts. Each figure in the circle is dependant on the group working in unison to make the cut so that the act will be completed successfully.

These are my friends, and this is a monument to those who are living, therefore, celebrating their existence, but in doing so mocks death worship. A typical monument is one that is for the deceased. The piece was made in response to the high number of suicide and opiod deaths amongst our friends throughout the years, it is meant to honor the deceased by going beyond their death to honor the living. However, my “alive” monuments are dying on loop.

The piece uses death to make life monumental: where to die is part of the work, and not that the work begins or is fully completed after death, as with traditional monuments. This monument is spectacle. In the words of Guy Debord “The spectacle in general, as the concrete inversion of life, is the autonomous movement of the non-living.” So, if anyone is going to kill my friends, it’s going to be me.

Sometimes, when I’m sitting next to someone, when I consciously think about how much I love them, I unintentionally imagine slitting their throat. Not because I’m annoyed or disgusted, but because of how pivotal they are to my being and how the thought of losing them would destroy my world, and so I think what would it be like to shatter my reality?

The potentiality is what I am talking about, like standing at the top edge of a skyscraper and being terrified by the urge of wanting to throw yourself off. Falling is the fastest and most convenient way to exit, so why not take it?

I believe the reason not to take the fastest exit is because death is certain uncertainty. Living is also uncertainty but in life what is certain is the power of love.