Fireside Chat

Artist's Statement

Mark Romanek once said, in reference to an interview given by Kubrick, that the best way to describe good art was that it had to be "more daring and more sincere." I feel like our class was able to fulfill both of these criteria on this night, and the spirit was not just one of empathy and pity, but one of appreciation. I feel like there are some good artists in this class.

Initially I wanted to tell a ghost story I had heard on the internet, because it was very scary and disturbing, and there's a malicious impulse in me that likes to see people squirm at what I can make or perform. However, I decided to change my story at the last minute and stayed up until the sun rose writing something on a scroll that I would then read out. I feel like this was a good change, as the end result was much more sincere, and much more daring, and hopefully still made people squirm in a conversation that speaks of the grand importance of human life and one's fellow man. The story was completely true and really did happen to me when I was ten and a half, and every detail is exactly as I remember it - I made a conscious decision to write in a journalistic and literal sense, enveloping the event with small and uninterpreted details. I feel like this compounded the effect of the story and helped make it feel less like a story. The transition to the present was accompanied by a transition in style - I wrote more in verse than I did in the stream-of-consciousness diary entry of the childhood perspective. The ending was written in the third person to relate the idea that I needed something external and greater than myself to reassure me and comfort me, this being the belief aspect of the assignment.

I got the idea for the scroll from Saul William's amazing poetry slam performance, which discusses rap and spirituality in an obliterating way. I arrived at most of the other stylistic decisions serendipitously and they turned out well. I didn't use a song or a video or any pictures but used the scroll as a prop that would reaffirm the stream-of-consciousness style in that it is literally a physical "stream" of my consciousness.

I really enjoyed this assignment and I really enjoyed the work of my peers, and I feel like it was an uplifting experience that benefited everyone that participated. I feel like I over-shared, but I'm okay with that, and I feel like it was worthwhile.

Thanks for this class.