Numbness (2020)
4min 14sec Video
Audio from Rupert Read's 'This civilisation is finished: So what is to be done?' read by ‘Kate’ a British English voice.
This was a text I spent considerable time with during lockdown - and in a way I had become quite numb to how big the warnings were.
Adding my tears to horseradish whilst listening to some of the most frank (possibly pessimistic) climate literature - helped me unstick a numbness and helplessness I had felt. The inevitable anxiety of acknowledging the challenge we have ahead of us was so much that I was protecting myself. We’re all doing it to some degree. It’s sensible.
But looking back it feels like the release - aided by the chemical properties of the horseradish - has enabled me to move forwards as a ‘dissatisfied optimist’ - to make work about human folly and climate and to celebrate nature and all that…
It was a real catharsis. And the horseradish was delicious (with beetroot obvs).
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