If I were asked to rank the ‘five-senses’ it would nearly be impossible to single one out. These attributes are certainly center pieces of being – that is life. This body of work explores the notion of anti-five-senses, the cessation of life.
This on-going project is entitled Be Not Proud. I intend to entice a dialog on the morbid topic of death. It is indeed a complex topic, influenced by culture, religion, belief, traditions, societal and the like… Perhaps it is an open invitation for self examination, ranking priorities, and the importance of life itself.
John Donne (1572-1631)
Death Be not Proud (written 1610, published posthumously in 1633)
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more, death, thou shalt die.