WE WILL DIE, THEY WON’T, AND THAT IS OKAY

2017

A site-specific performance that focuses on the idea of the "unintentional monument", a structure/object that has gained cultural or historical significance beyond its original purpose. The artist wears a denim jacket with a large patterned patch on the back, burned with the message, "WE WILL DIE, THEY WON'T, AND THAT IS OKAY." He travels to Druridge Bay, Northumberland, and climbs up the sand dunes toward one of the many concrete military structures along the coast. once there, he uses yellow chalk to draw the same pattern on his jacket, on the concrete. He then sets off three yellow smoke-grenades, adopting a salute like pose whilst holding them. the three poses mirror some of the subjects of Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen's photo-series, Byker, in relation to the performance's location on the Northumbrian Coast.

The artist's actions set out to show the location as both a place of significance and worship, as well as a place of desire and invasion. 

Photo credit: Nevill Wilson