LAMENT, MULTI-MEDIA INSTALLATION INCLUDING VIDEO, SOUND, AND SCULPTURE. DIMENSIONS OF THE SCULPTURAL PIECE CIRCA 6 FT X 6 FT. 12/17
The piece LAMENT aims to reflect a personal experience of loss and grieving, while also examining the cultural context of death and dying within the United States. Filled with contemporary fantasies of immortality, from anti-aging creams to cryonics, Americans today avoid death at all costs. However up until the end of the 19th century, death was far more familiar to the average American, and dying at home was of common trend. Yet in today’s culture where death is taboo those in mourning become isolated.
The audio portion expresses the personal experience of grieving, taking the participant through the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. While the abstracted clips of mass crowds and flashing car lights, highlight the broader and cultural context of death within the United States in our post modern society.
The participant sits inside the structure on a rotating platform, trapped inside their own world of revolving grief, as the outside world continues on. Reflections of the projections are visible to the participant or rather the “griever” as the soundtrack plays within head phones for only the viewer to experience. At points the video collage shifts in structure to an abstraction of flashing lights as the audio track increases in intensity. This is the moment when grief spills out, when despite the uncomfortably that the subject of death brings up, the grief becomes external as opposed to internal.
While grief is undeniably a universal experience, in societies where the cultural context of death is more easily accepted, mourners are respected by traditions that help to form the fabrics of their community. Lament showcases the culture of death and dying within the United States and aims to capture the experience of the griever, as the participant themselves takes on this role, confronting the viewer with the uncomfortability of immortality.