Thursday 12 April 2012

In Waiting


1930's leather travel case , knife ,fork, gas bill.
20x30cm.
2006


Can we ever be alone?
 Not now it seems, not if you want to live like everyone else does.We all seem to want the same things , a herding instinct maybe.
Even if you eschew a life lived through tv and branded goods you still need the basics.Even if you cook from scratch and don't get caught in a consumer loop.
You still have to leave the house,pay utilities,sign your name.There are photos of you, videos even, people know you, talk about you, remember you.
It could be said that until no-one remembers you any more you have a certain immortality.And if you write your name on your pictures who knows how far into the future you could be known.
But what of your ancestors.A lot of people have photos of great grandparents , the legacy of Victorian technology, but not many.
We know nothing of our forebears.There is a genetic history and we are the living record of the past.It has been proven that certain bloodlines are carried with unusual surnames. People in one country somehow related to the most unlikely people in another.We generally know nothing of the lives of those who gave us life though we all share 20% of the same genes.
If you are the last in your family, what then ?
What if you were the only child of only children; no cousins , nieces ,nephews. What if you had lived alone in the house you born in and as you grew older your family died, friends married, moved away, died. No-one knows you, the only photos of you are in your own albums;smiling from the past, a ghost in your own life.
How many lives have passed like this ? Is it so terrible ? You are rare, in fact you have something many desire...privacy.

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