The 25th of July 2003 will be the opening of a solo exhibition in Barcelona, Spain by the Curacao visual artist Tirzo Martha.
This work is part of the artist’s project "Destiny; shunning the journey".
This project is about the journey of life and how we, constantly, try to avoid the journey so we aren't faced with disappointments and failures. It starts with a description of how we experience our childhood and adolescence.
The next part deals with old age and death.
So the first part (childhood and adolescence) will be presented as a installation in Barcelona and the second part (old age and death) will be also presented as a installation at the Biennale Internazionale Dell’Arte Contemporanea in Florence Italy.
Tirzo Martha is a Premiere Portfolio Artists at absoltuearts.com. To see more of the his work go to: www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/t/tirzo
Artist's Description of the Installation:
As little children we looked on to our parents, as the people who could make, not only anything become possible, but also as the ones who could solve any problem as well. Our destiny seemed to become like our parents. But, as we became more aware of what happens in the world around us, we chose to change the direction of our journey in search of a better or more secure destination. We started to see all things as relative, and to compare ourselves with others.
However, this may not be fair, because the value and contribution of any person in this world is of great importance, and everyone’s added value to life counts. But unfortunately we are not immune to all infirmity that contaminate the mind and spirit, given all kinds of complexes that seem to abound among us, like complexes of inferiority.
The journey lots of times, consists of several moments or events that mark its history. One of these moments in the journey of our life, which for many has been a great experience, was our first bicycle. Lots of us don’t even remember the first steps we made. Not so with the first bicycle. It was the first encounter between master and pupil: freedom, mobility and independence. It was a lesson, teaching us that the direction and speed of the advancing in life lies in our own hands. We are the ones who decide how we are going to manage our own journey and our destiny.
At one moment the bicycle carries the entire luggage we have, and the entire luggage we want to carry during our journey. From the beginning of our trip we are confronted with the fact that we need more than the bicycle and our belongings to reach our destiny. Here the confrontation starts with bigger realities. Insecurity and fear take hold of our journey. While on our way we start creating goals that we think we can realistically reach. This in order to avoid disappointments at our final destination; a destination that in most cases, we don’t even know. The doubt that keeps on growing inside of us is making us so insecure, that we even start to doubt in the luggage we are carrying. We start asking ourselves if it is really sufficient or if it will actually serve our goal when we actually reach the final destiny of our journey. We start seeing our deficiencies, and we can’t hide from them. To avoid our deficiencies we start inventing excuses instead of confronting them.
It is known that excuses reflect a spirit full of fear and insecurity. Whether we want it or not, our fear or insecurity can get hold of us, many times to a degree that we cannot control. It makes us vulnerable to our surroundings. That’s when we invent some kind of excuse to cover our reality.
The fear and insecurity, in most cases, can manipulate and influence our opinions, dreams, hopes, desires, decisions and even our daily life. We create a sense of shame of ourselves and this many times makes us feel inferior to others.
We start asking ourselves if it was a good idea making this journey or if the choice of destination was the correct one.
To hide from it all, many times we create an illusion within our reality. This implies that we try to remedy or avoid the disappointments that we are afraid to be confronted with. We give breath to stories giving us the hope and helping us to hide from our daily lives.
Sometimes we come up with non-realistic goals to help us steer away from disappointments that may lie on our road.
Many times the measurement units we use to measure or to prove ourselves are neither reliable nor correct. At any time they may deceive us. They may help the burden of disappointment become even heavier.
One thing is clear: The journey of all communities stands naked in the middle of a journey full of surprises, disappointment and sometimes glory.
"Destiny; shunning the journey" is a program, consisting of 2 projects, beginning with nativity and adolescence followed by the elderly and confrontation with death.
"Quixotic": Pertaining to or like Don Quixote, the hero of a Spanish romance ridiculing knight-errantry; hence, ridiculously chivalrous or romantic; having high but impractical sentiments, aims, etc.; extravagant; visionary.
The beginning of the journey, the preparations, the medium we are going to use for our journey, the luggage we are going to carry. The dualism of the journey. The nervousness and emotions accompanying the preparations. The fear of forgetting something. Last moment surprises. The lack of experience, as this is our first journey on our own. Although we know we are going to return, the fear that this will eventually not happen, keeps us tense, and also makes us hold still for a moment and think about the journey and the home that we will leave behind.
"The moment of silence before our departure"; "The first movements of the transport"; "The view of our home disappearing far away at the horizon".
It’s like waking up from a foolish dream. A dream that kept on going and was promptly stopped without any notification.
The first encounter with our possible destination. A destination that later will be changed various times. A destination that will change because of various influences and a lack of knowledge and experience.
Fear of standing alone. Trying to be part of a group. Identity crises.
Confrontation with the reality of the world surrounding us. All the beautiful images that we have of our journey changes. We are stricken by the burst of events never thought possible.
Lots of noises, disorder and chaos.
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