I made this with my two sons during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, from egg cartons out of the recycling bin, masking tape and old markers. It stands fifty centimetres. That June it was shown in In the Clouds, an online showcase run by the Raise-an-Artist Project, because in 2020 that was the only kind of show there was.
All humans produce sound, but not all sounds are music. We refine ourselves as individual instruments so that we can learn to play better music with others. Sometimes it is our solo act. Most of the time we have to play together, in harmony.
The evolution of fighting has built temples, filled libraries and tuned theology and spirituality for millennia, in every culture there is. And yet the study of it as a medium, how humans war with each other and with themselves, is largely relegated to entertainment.
That is like judging the merits of music by an orchestra fighting each other with their instruments. Imagine the alternative: every culture, creed and colour holding an instrument, playing at once. This sculpture is one of them. The orchestra is the part you have to supply.
Concept art, 2019.
Me Instrument in the We Orchestra, 2020. Egg carton, masking tape and marker. 50 × 20 × 21 cm
Poem · The Me Instrument in the We Orchestra
Written for the students of Dapo Martial Arts School, in the voice of one of them.
I’m eleven and I have earned my green belt
It doesn’t matter whether jujutsu, kendo, arnis, kung fu or taekwondo
It’s really up to you.
But I got mine in karate-do
That stands for empty hand way you know.
I learned that I’m
a ME instrument
in a WE orchestra.
That’s kinda cool I think.
Imagine fighting like music
That’s how it was taught to me.
What would music be as a discipline
If hurting each other with an instrument
Was all a musician could see?
I still don’t get it
So I’m starting where everyone starts
That’s the fighting part.