The Reckoning
A deer skull sweeps its antlers into a ring to encircle those who stand upon a platform to look into its eyes, enrapturing them in a thrumming soundscape. Armatured with rusting steel and clad in rawhide leather, the skull almost seems to float as its antlers flow to the earth to support its weight, tipped in flame.
Placed to allow the sun to set directly through its antlers, it acknowledges celestial rhythms and humanity’s atavistic relationship to the passage of time. At night, sinewy and translucent, “The Reckoning” comes alive, shimmering with addressable LEDs, both as the shine of life within death and the spirit world’s folkloric awakening in darkness.
Approaching “The Reckoning,” you are drawn through a blazing archway of antlers and a rich audio tapestry and beckoned to stand upon a pressure-sensor platform with haptic feedback placed before the skull's visage. When you stand upon the platform, the installation metamorphosizes, unveiling new light and sound symphonies to guide participants through a journey of mortal introspection. Four 45 second long audio/visual experiences are choreographed and play at random for each person stepping onto the platform.
Conceived amidst the adrenaline rush of a motorcycle journey through the desolate desert, “The Reckoning” emerged as a haunting yet nurturing vision—a deer skull with antlers that curl forward to embrace rather than arching skyward. The visual juxtaposition—the macabre austerity of the naked bone alongside the gentle and affirming reach of antlers—provided space for my grief and introspection. This spectral figure has lingered, propelled by experiences along the razor edge of mortality and the omnipresent shadow of a global pandemic, crystallizing into a symbol of both existential dread and profound acceptance. “The Reckoning” invites us to grapple with the inescapable—to find solace and beauty in the culminating experience that binds us in our shared humanity. It serves as a sanctuary, and a space to confront the fears and sorrows that global and personal crises have laid bare.
