This was a project from last year. The task was to create a monument, or in this case, an anti-monument. This particular sculpture, as an anti-monument, speaks to the reality that many of us have to live with daily. The reality that, as much as our minds, hearts, and spirits may be thriving with vitality, sometimes our bodies are just not on the same page.
This art piece challenges the conventions of the “ideal” human figure in all of its glory and fitness, and offers a more realistic lens so we can empathize with those who aren’t afforded the same luxuries.
In many cases, those luxuries aren’t grandeur feats of running marathons, doing hill sprints, or traversing the himalaya’s. These luxuries can be as simple as walking to the bathroom, or getting in and out of the shower, or bending down to tie your damn shoe!
So who am I to build this anti-monument to youth??
What does this rusty-ass, creaky-ole, scrap-steel, spring loaded, hand-crankable slap-stick of a sculptural art piece have to do with me on a personal level?
Well let me tell you. I traversed the himalaya’s. Last year, about this time.
But it came at a cost…
We had made it through 5 days of hiking up, down, up down, up down, and up again, until we were near the high pass on the Manaslu circuit in Nepal. I was doing quite well with walking sticks until near the 5th day when I started to notice the pain in my leg. Fortunately, i was prepared with a knee brace that kept me going. I had anticipated this, although I was trying with all my power to avoid it.
My knee had finally felt recovered from my previous injury, which occurred snowshoeing through the mountains of British Columbia, but it wasn’t recovered enough.
The 6th day was a day of rest to acclimatize to the elevation. In a couple of days, weather permitting, we would go over the pass and continue our hiking down the other side.
But after a couple days waiting, the weather was not permitting, and we were going to need to begin our trek back down the way we came.
I was very nervous for my physical health, but fortunately our guardian angels came to fly us out of there. And by guardian angels, I mean an emergency helicopter evacuation due to a global pandemic!! (Thank you COVID, for real.)
Today I continue to recover. Rather than taking a passive approach to healing i’m attempting to build strength. Running small distances each day, doing polar-dips in the ocean every morning as cold-exposure therapy.
This whole experience of physical injury has helped me realize the value in having a healthy body, and how it is something we shouldn’t take for granted. I know even in my worst condition that i’m fortunate to even have legs at all. There are many people out there who have it much worse than me. This art piece is my way of saying to those people, I see you.
I hope that through my pursuit of a degree in Industrial Design I can do my part to make life a more accessible place for those with disabilities.