The Light of Day is Sweet

In March 2010, Lin started a project on the transience of life, with a short questionnaire which covers three main topics:

§        People's visual association of death

§        Their feelings and thoughts about their own mortality

§        How the individuals would like to be remembered

About 110 individuals from different parts of the world have completed the questionnaire. Based on their answers, Lin made a sculpture A Memorial to the Living for the exhibition Here Today, Gone Tomorrow as part of the Bath Fringe Arts Festival in May/June 2010. The responses to the question on visual association have also inspired a series of small paintings.

The Light of Day is Sweet:
  A Memorial to the Living

 

The sculpture is about 2.2m high.  In the centre is a slideshow of the answers to the question on how the participants would like to be remembered, with the artist's photographic work as background. The names of the participants are also inscribed on stones and shells. Details of the individuals are used in the artwork only with their consent.  Please click here for a list of the answers.

 

The choice of materials for the sculpture (wood, stone and shells) and of the images used in the slides (blurred/edited images of landscape, plants and animals) highlights the fact that we are part of nature and mortality is natural. However, by using a variety of colourful images in the slides, the slideshow conveys the richness and diversity of life and renders this "memorial" a celebration of living.

Lin would like to thank all the individuals who have completed a questionnaire for this project.