For many reasons we may lock away our thoughts, our feelings and our ideas. We build up heavily fortified ways of keeping them buried – scared for many reasons not to share them. Wrapping them up in some of the Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn or Flop response mechanisms.
Is it dangerous to do so? We’re programmed to cover this up with a façade, or a mask and to ignore our intuition. Society tends to encourage the suppression of ideas, and the longer we prevent ourselves from doing so, we lose the childlike freedom to try out our fleeting ideas and thoughts.
The constant process of repressing our ideas, can make them explosive and cause unseen internal destruction – inevitably manifesting in both physical and mental damage. Therefore allowing the oppressor to cast a shadow or control over your future - which causes further internal trauma.
Through the Moving Canvas art collective, I’ve come to the realisation that we must somehow find the smallest of ways to express our true selves on a daily basis in order to grow our confidence and to assert ourselves on those past and present oppressors.
Simply, Light Bulb Bombs is about removing the mask, opening up and tentatively sharing ideas. The audience is asked to reach into the open ammo box compartments and take some ‘light bulb seed bombs’ home to plant. Thus sharing, moving and aiding the original ideas.
An essential part of this installation is to collaborate with a local community art group or a community garden group. In the lead up to the Arte Laguna exhibition I would like to work with a local group close to the exhibition. We will have a workshop to manually create the seedbombs together for the exhibition.
When installed the light bulbs, with the electrical charge of linked humans will turn on the descending lightbulb moments and therefore illuminate and help germinate the remaining seed bombs in the top ammo boxes.
The ammo boxes are arranged akin to the expanding tool box or an expanding sewing box. The two sides of the ammo box assembly represent the two hemispheres of our brain. Directly above is the suspended Wire Frame Faceted Light sculpture – illustrating that being encouraged to remove the mask can help allow more ideas to be released and expressed.
