Saturday 26 September 2009

Hoarse - Burning Man 2009

I'll write more about my full experience of bring Art to the playa at Burning Man in the fullness of time but here are some notes regarding the Art itself I installed in Deep Playa this year at Burning Man. What an experience!!!

Project Name:
HOARSE

Description:
Death might as well shout itself hoarse for all the attention we pay it before its often untimely arrival.
An eternal loop video installation depicting a decaying horse, disturbing at first glance as the image is grim and predominantly about death. Yet the longer one watches, the more one notices the life in the image - flies, bugs, birds, grass, butterflies... All part of the beautiful and natural cycle of life and death. One hears the flies and wind. And every now and then the alarming roar of someone in a car whizzing obliviously past this roadside moment.
The natural lighting in the scene changes slowly
yet dramatically from grim overcast to bright, cheery sunny. As one watches so one’s mood changes with this lighting shift. The longer one sits with the piece the more one recognises the certainty yet peace of death, understanding its place within nature and our own lives.

I love life but i am glad that one day I will die. To die is the greatest adventure. And death, a threshold we cannot peek over before our time. I am content to wait a while longer for that day happily knowing it will come.

Shot in Botswana.


Artist:
Hal Couzens aka Doctor Lobster

Art placement:
Deep playa – 12:45 and 5000’ from the man