WHEN IT RAINS IT POURS

FLASH PROJECT 1

This piece of artwork is called ‘when it rains it pours’. It was inspired by the friends I have lost to suicide. I chose to utilise the cliché elements associated with suicide because they are prominent , relevant and symbolic in society. I do not want to live in a Shakespearean society – if you want to say something- say it. Don’t describe everything but what you are trying to say. Don’t play charades and point to your ear (sounds like). Life is too short and too busy to keep people guessing. I used words associated with suicide (or attempted suicide) – depression, torture, pain etc for dramatic effect, to show how much confusion this young woman is feeling and in fact any person that contemplates suicide or self-harm. I took the photograph last year while I was going through a dark time- I used my models to show the sort of things I had fleetingly thoughts about. The words bouncing and shuddering on the screen show the unpredictability of mental illness and the uncontrollable fear people feel when they think of the uncertainties of life. The words when it rains it pours that fall down the screen with the red coloured rain symbolise the overwhelming feeling the world is coming to an end or that everything comes at once and you can’t see the forest for the trees. The red rain is meant to symbolise bleeding out- giving up and handing your life over to death. This piece is meant to be dark and make you question your ideas and thoughts on suicide, death and mental health.