I guess it takes an armageddon to inject hope into a pessimist. Or am I just being too faded right now to be true about myself? Two years ago I wrote this statement for my website, stating that « the last one standing will turn off the light with a bloody finger. ». And I was pretty fucking happy about how it sounded back then.
Although it still complicated as I write this down, I don’t think I feel the same anymore. Winning has always been about defeating an historical, social, political and cultural enemy who ended up being the same guy, the same dude from overseas. The one who transplanted his story to mine. And from the moment I could talk to this day, he never changed a bit, nor have his methods and paradigm. Lately, I came to realize how much weight this other side of history was weighting on his chest as well, destroying him in ways I couldn’t even think were possible.
Little by little, as seen in my piece « The Dress », I started to include him and his violent, brutal nature into my visual reflection, creating beauty through him like sunbeams through thin glass. And what popped from the other side surprised the fuck out of me: it was hope.
This man will probably die my enemy, and the annihilation of his mindset is an unskippable mission I will never turn my back on. But we’ll still be here keeping the light on. That’s what artists do.