Living in Los Angeles, means a lot of time spent on the highway, and a lot of time on the highway means that I have seen many bodies crushed on the pavement. Sometimes they are just a blur of fur and blood, other times I see the pitiful, limp and careless pose that these innocents strike in the face of humanity’s merciless race. Whether someone’s beloved cat or a nameless rodent, at these times I can’t help but feel an aching pain for the loss of this creature who crossed paths with someone’s cold hard SUV. I am not alone as a bleeding heart for bled out animals – Joy Hunsberger has a Roadkill Manifesto, and she has dedicated herself to lovingly memorializing the victims with portraiture. Her explanation, in the form of her manifesto, is a brilliant and very perceptive one, and in actuality explains a lot of the work we feature on CVLT Nation, and why a lot of the imagery, ideas and music that we collect here is often offensive to a large part of society. She explains it as follows:
All of life is a delicate balance, with our time in this realm balanced by our passing from it.
As a society, we mistakenly fear death because we do not fully understand it, but even more so because we cannot control it. Current societal ideals state that we must control as much as possible, shunning any symbiotic relationship with nature, any ideas of impermanance, and anything that is not immediately gratifying to the ego, in favor of the illusion of security born from control.We do not understand or have forgotten, that this upsets the balance of life and is unnatural. In most cases, impositions of human will are by nature, a form of violence themselves. It makes sense that we perceive death as a threat, or a dark force, if we perceive it to be something to be influenced by violent intent. In truth, we know that we cannot control it, and we do not accept it, so it becomes our enemy. We shun it, and any mention of our mortality is considered distasteful, vulgar, and sometimes dangerous. The topic of mortality has become a popular form of discomfort. People are afraid to think of their bodies as merely temporary arrangements of atoms to house an eternal life-force. They are attached to their limited, constructed ways of thinking, and any change scares them. For this reason, my work is often not well-received.
Hunsberger’s insights into the fear and rejection of death explains why some of my brainwashed relatives recoil in horror at the skulls that adorn my walls. It also puts her photography into its proper light, and explains her tender lighting and perspective, and her choice to name each animal in its passing. After the jump check out a gallery of her works, and I suggest a trip to her website to read her manifesto in full…
New Comments