No. 6 - Heaven

PITCHFORK

CUTTHROAT

WITCH HUNT

GUNSMOKE

 

Link to Video: https://vimeo.com/1172426842

 

PITCHFORK is a reflection on our connected world, and how it simultaneously holds the key to understanding one's self, and the way by which the individual is crushed. It shows this through it's three acts - The form of the Buddha, the intersection of architectures, and the collision of street art.

The Buddha photographed is the Kotoku-in in Kamakura, Japan. I often meditate on this specific depiction before I fight, often alongside the imagery and sensations of water - That calms and focuses me. Buddha and jellyfish (the most water-like of animals) are not ideas native to my hometown of Chicago, and they are only known to me through the interconnectedness of the modern era. I am one of the first people of my lineage to observe Buddha and jellyfish up close, photograph and video them, not to mention meditate on their image. Through the advantages of this era, I am able to seek enlightenment - self-understanding - through both.

The next part of PITCHFORK pulls Buddha through urban sprawl, then stacks building upon building. It's fast, violent, and dirty, distracting from the relaxed imagery of the earlier part. Although the world is more interconnected than ever, it's also more chaotic. High-speed rail, long distance communication, and the internet - All of these things threaten to overwhelm that enlightenment of self.

Thus overwhelmed by our world, many people seek to leave their mark on it. We feel small underneath gargantuan architectures, as I discussed in my photobook, and street graffiti grows from that feeling, like spores on mountains. But that art layers atop itself, the result of too many voices clamoring at once, and any one voice becomes too much for an audience to take in.

PITCHFORK is a reflection on our global village, which is filled to the brim with everyone seeking to understand themselves and be heard above other. It's an anxious depiction, made by someone who regularly struggles to breath in this world.

 

Thanks,

CJ