Altar

This monument directly memorializes my cousin, Kevin, whom passed away last year at the age of 24, while indirectly memorializing a childhood ignorance and shell that was shattered in light of his death. The memorial is quite literally every object and physical possession I currently have ownership of or have created. Each element was strategically placed while forming an overriding motif of chaos and disjunction.




In this pile lays some of my most charged and sacred possessions, lying directly in contact with such mundane objects such as my boxers or toothpaste. One practical and part of physical existence, and the other with nothing more than a spiritual and personal purpose dictated upon it. These many objects lay in contact with one another, forced into interaction, but splayed out in chaos. This is much a portrait of my life post Kevin’s death, it became chaotic and innumerable. I came to a point where I could no longer differentiate the many facets that compose me.



There are to pictures of Kevin falsely hung on the wall, the only two pictures I have left of him. I give them the hand drawn frames because I maintain total control of their quality, and also can rest assured that even in the worst of tremors their frames will not fall and the glass will not shatter Another peculiar aspect of this altar is it ephemeral nature. I was consistently pulling objects from it to wear, cook with, eat, read, and placing them back. This left the altar in constant flux. This ties very closely to the nature of the past two years since his death. All in all, this altar really was a good thing to remember my past and Kevin, while continuing to look forward for whets to come.