Helmets

2021-2022

Excerpt from EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME:

“The works in this series take the shape of helmets and have titles such as Protection Against Unfulfilled Desires and Protection Against Irrevocable Mistakes. Their titles point to undesirable but inevitable situations and events in life. There are things we cannot protect ourselves from, so we might just as well try to accept the tragic dimensions of life, and make peace with some of them. The ceramic helmets are heavy and fragile at the same time. They provide no protection, just as life offers us no guarantees. In my research I came across this thesis: One of the reasons for mental suffering and depression in today’s Western culture is our inability to accept and handle the tragic dimensions of life. Every life comprises a tragic component, but if we do not possess ways of dealing with this in private and in public, if our personal and working lives are not organized in ways that allow space and care in life’s fragile moments, these become extraordinary events that are not supposed to happen and are therefore even more difficult to face. Humans around the globe live with very different levels of privilege and security, but vulnerability, insecurity and ultimately mortality are the unavoidable conditions of inhabiting a human body.” – Hannah Toticki

Photos by Anders Sune Berg