Fear is simply a primitive emotion designed to protect us, evolutionary response to eliminate threats threats, whether physical or psychological, real or imagined, it exists because fear was allowed our ancestors to prosper.
Our fears today are very different than that of the first humans. But how different is the emotion.
I’ve wanted to make a peens & needles piece for a while, and while fear of needles oftentimes is associated with medical trauma, I took a different direction. We don’t need anymore of that on our feed
Needles and Abandonment were two answers we saw over and over again. (If anyone wants to do a tally of all the answers lmk). So I put together the pin cushion balls and added the hands (which were supposed to be all skin colors FU amazon)
I never expected this particular concept to work on tik tok. That was never the goal. It just seemed like the obvious collab for me and @dildonightmares. And ive def had my moments of frustration and doubt trying to rebuild when IG has always been the best platform for my art… But every time I have posted about this, I have gotten thousands of responses from people stating their fears and nightmares.
And this year, so many people are essentially being forced to live out their worst nightmares. Yet people are so eager to share their fears… (does anyone know why..?)
The overwhelming response to fear made me think bc at first, I was like F… is this too much? Is my comment section going to become a trtigger….(even when I dont post ab fear I get comments, and I never want to bring something up for someone…)
But after a therapy session where I only talked about my research, putting this peace together, and questioning society on a Friday night I had a revelation
What if we all took made the collective, conscious decision to recognize our fears?
And instead of reacting to protect ourselves, we responded by letting others know they are safe
so clearly (post 1) I wasn’t really sure what to expect with the answers on this. I wondered if that was the WRONG way to try and rebuild haha… yet people kept commenting and requesting their fears to be made into art. I realized fear exists in all of us. a thread that ties us together …
the whole goal of this project is to get rid of stigma and shame.. and when you think about it… those are essentially the result of fear reactions from other. Of difference, of the unknown, of things they dont understand, of things that are different. And in this case metaphorically..
We are saying FUCK YOUR FEARS
Fear is literally a literal thread that tied us together. It manifests differently for everyone based on their unique perspective, experience and body chemistry.
As I added the thread to the needles and hands on the sculpture, everything became stronger, the threads reinforced and connected everything. A literal safety net. Imagine how different this year would have been if instead of looking out for ourselves, we looked to make others feel safe (which I did, and it seems hopeless at times… I cant imagine saying F it! but I wish I could at moments…. it’s so simple to make someone else feel safe. As humans… we are programmed to survive… and I keep getting stuck on this point… what if our only job was to take care of each other and the planet. 2020 would be so diff. We live in a time where technology changes faster than we do… and im so sick of people trying to make tech liable… as if it isnt our nature to come up with these things.
If our whole community is safe, we are safe
a mask shows people that you are trying to protect them. And we know what it looks like where ppl do that
Sharing & trust would mean people wouldn’t have to hoard TP and purell
and ofc thats just the pandemic
anyways I wish I did have a vaccine with a mircochip that could transcribe my thoughts bc this has been hours in my head and hard to express all on paper…. but alas: the evolving meaning behind p33ns and needles
