“What It’s Gonna Take“ An installation about death, time and consumption
The initial point fort this installation are thoughts about a very common place: about my own death.
The question is: HOW MANY things and HOW MUCH I will need until I die?
To make the point very clear: taking into account the average live span of a female European, I will have 35 years and 3 Months left before I die.
35 years. Certainly, the contemplation of death as a concept usually has a spiritual, religious feel to it. But the very thought of one´s own death leaves us full of fear and weak. Yet in religious meditations, we sometimes find a strange mixture of vanity and of superstition. How are we to cope with the inevitability and finality of our own death?
I started off with a very simple, pragmatic and down-to-earth way to grasping the fact that I will be dead in about 35 years. I looked at these years that I have left and asked myself:
How much coffee will I drink in these next 35 years? How much bread will I eat? How many socks will I wear? How many cars, toilet paper, etc, etc. will I need till I die? I related every one´s consumer behaviour to my personal habits and to my identity.
The amount of all these things might help me to visualize the life-span that is left for me. „According to the theory of relativity, each observer has his own measure of time, which is registered on the watch he is wearing. Watches on different observers do not have to register the same measurement of time. Therefore, time evolved into a personal concept, depending on the observer who is measuring it.“ (Stephen W. Hawking)
Doing the math and make it visible. I put my focus on how the presentation of everyday life could be made visible?
I didn´t want to show the package, or the wrapping of products – this would distract me from the shere amount of things.
For example,
• coffee powder in a wheelbarrow
• the lipstick paste in a jar
• shoes as a stack to the wall (two pairs a year)
• bouquet of flowers (one a month) in a vase and multiplied by photos mounted on the wall
• clothes hanging from the ceiling
I whole room of goods I’ll need fort he next 35 years. And the extra white shirt.
Plus an extra section „If I’m Lucky“. My goal is to add to my time left 10 more years. So there’s the „Bonus“ section. Which will differ from the main part of the installation. Of course I will need different things when I become really old and frail. Like no more contact lenses but thick glasses instead. And a wheelchair? Pampers? A prayer book?
The result should be a questioning, yet touching portrait about our everyday life, our consumer behavior and on dealing with the fact that we are mortal.
May 2011,
Anne Herzblut
“What It’s Gonna Take“ An installation about death, time and consumption
The initial point fort this installation are thoughts about a very common place: about my own death.
The question is: HOW MANY things and HOW MUCH I will need until I die?
To make the point very clear: taking into account the average live span of a female European, I will have 35 years and 3 Months left before I die.
35 years. Certainly, the contemplation of death as a concept usually has a spiritual, religious feel to it. But the very thought of one´s own death leaves us full of fear and weak. Yet in religious meditations, we sometimes find a strange mixture of vanity and of superstition. How are we to cope with the inevitability and finality of our own death?
I started off with a very simple, pragmatic and down-to-earth way to grasping the fact that I will be dead in about 35 years. I looked at these years that I have left and asked myself:
How much coffee will I drink in these next 35 years? How much bread will I eat? How many socks will I wear? How many cars, toilet paper, etc, etc. will I need till I die? I related every one´s consumer behaviour to my personal habits and to my identity.
The amount of all these things might help me to visualize the life-span that is left for me. „According to the theory of relativity, each observer has his own measure of time, which is registered on the watch he is wearing. Watches on different observers do not have to register the same measurement of time. Therefore, time evolved into a personal concept, depending on the observer who is measuring it.“ (Stephen W. Hawking)
Doing the math and make it visible. I put my focus on how the presentation of everyday life could be made visible?
I didn´t want to show the package, or the wrapping of products – this would distract me from the shere amount of things.
For example,
• coffee powder in a wheelbarrow
• the lipstick paste in a jar
• shoes as a stack to the wall (two pairs a year)
• bouquet of flowers (one a month) in a vase and multiplied by photos mounted on the wall
• clothes hanging from the ceiling
I whole room of goods I’ll need fort he next 35 years. And the extra white shirt.
Plus an extra section „If I’m Lucky“. My goal is to add to my time left 10 more years. So there’s the „Bonus“ section. Which will differ from the main part of the installation. Of course I will need different things when I become really old and frail. Like no more contact lenses but thick glasses instead. And a wheelchair? Pampers? A prayer book?
The result should be a questioning, yet touching portrait about our everyday life, our consumer behavior and on dealing with the fact that we are mortal.
May 2011,
Anne Herzblut