This project all started while I was trying to fall asleep in bed. I usually rock myself to sleep thinking of future projects I can do. I wanted something to show my displeasure towards people who do nothing but talk, specifically in a condescending or boasting way. There's more to all this than just yourself.
This past May, I was in Europe, taking photos of all the architecture I was inspired by, knowing it could help me with this piece. I love how so much was consciously thought out and placed around, and wanted the same to go for this.
Most of the work was primarily figuring out the layout of it all. I wanted pillars supporting him representing life and death, where life is above, and death is below. The hands of life are holding on, but he is slipping down towards death. The pose is reminiscent of Jesus on the cross, since he regards himself as the Second Coming. Middle fingers slightly out as his last message to the world. Behind him needed to be things typically not thought about.
A small woman behind him holds a chain that keeps his feet from hanging. The kind of people this "middle finger structure" is dedicated to would find this emasculating, which I wanted. How dare a woman have control over him.
Below his feet is a door titled "extra perspective" in Latin. This represents how other people might see him, but what is behind those doors is up to the viewer's imagination.
On the sides of the structure, behind the man are depictions of death and time. They're always near, but often out of sight.
In the back, we have references to space. In the top corners are people pointing up, with a representation of the solar system in the middle. Atlas holds the world Earth (or the heavens) a scholar is looking upward, denoting that there is still we have a lot to learn about what is out there.
I wanted this to look beautiful and ornate, all to be tainted and stained by blood, while it splatters the wall behind and pours from the head. You can paint a beautiful picture of yourself, but that doesn't mean you're not human like the rest of us. This acts as a reminder of that.
The universe won't wait for you to wake up.