Seppuku Omedetou (congradulations on your suicide)

sep·pu·ku (sěp'ōō-kōō, sě-pōō'-) Pronunciation Key
n. Ritual suicide by disembowelment formerly practiced by Japanese samurai. Also called hara-kiri.

Below are photos of the installation I did for my BFA show "FACE THE FOLD". It is a sculptural installation entitled Seppuku Omedetou composed of three elements; a standing screen made of four scorched wooden doors, a scorched wooden platform on top of which is placed a cross of ash (evocative of a seppuku wound), and a birdcage (the ultimate 'closed text' metaphor) within which is more ash and a broken japanese teacup. The birdcage also bears the seppuku wound (half of the verticle bars were slashed). Lastly are two long verticle hanging banners which bear the mark of an explosive event. To some they look like fire(especially as the light difuses through them), others a spash of blood. In any case they read as both cause and effect, both an event and the record of an event. Each piece stands on its own but is enhanced by its relationship to the others, which helps it fall into a narrative.

All together the piece was something of a self portrait, not only of myself but of a process. I saw my BFA show as the ideal platform to "commit seppuku," (ultimately expressed in the video piece of the same title which used the installation as a set piece). That is to say, to kill off my former self and the complacency i had sunk into as a student. Samurai were reputedly buddhist and therefore believed in reincarnation or the idea that physical death is merely a transformation...life is trancendant. I referenced Seppuku specifically, and not just idea of suicide, for this reason. I see graduating as a moment of transformation rather than a finality. I'm still an artist, but i must adapt to changing and uncertain means.

Many of my regular themes were also floating around in this piece, but the above statement is at the heart of it.