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Credits
Title: Project Proposal 2004-567: "Unmarked Gravestone"
Author: ©︎ogakuzu
Year Created: 2020SCP-JP Rookie Contest 2020: Tied for Top Prize in GoI Format Category
Name: Ōoka Tauro
Title: Unmarked Gravestone
Requisition:
- One gravestone (made of marble, 1m x 0.3m x 2m)
- One coffin (made of wood, 0.5m x 2m x 0.5m)
- One acrylic board (2.5m x 2.5m x 2.5m)
- One full-body skeleton (a replica is acceptable if it proves difficult to prepare)
- About two hundred and fifty amnestic forget-me-nots (Myosotis amnestica)
- Cognitohazard Control Factor
Abstract: The Unmarked Gravestone resembles a typical Christian tomb except for the use of an acrylic panel that allows the coffin to be visible. The headstone is engraved with the names of the anartists participating in this year's Sommes-Nous Devenus Magnifiques? exhibition. Visitors are recommended to pay their respects to the gravesite; pre-prepared forget-me-not flowers are offered to the installation every two hours.
As the main cognitive influence trigger, scent is used to efficiently disseminate the effect. The affected individuals temporarily lose all background knowledge that is unnecessary to appreciate artistic pieces (e.g., the artists' achievements, personalities, and relationships), and they do not experience any sense of discomfort about it. It also prevents the viewer's evaluation of the artworks from being influenced by other people's opinions of them. This effect must last at least for the duration of the exhibition.
Intent: What does an artist truly seek? Although everyone has their own views, I believe that it is to have one's work evaluated, and to have it evaluated fairly. Nowadays, the art world, which should be a sanctuary, is being trampled by recentcomers, and anart has become a tool in the money game of capitalists, with the basis of evaluation being placed outside of the work itself. I am indignant at this situation. What is the point of an auction where the price is determined by whose signature is on the artwork? My Yesterday's Apocalypse was indeed a successful, but that should not be taken into account in the evaluation of my other pieces.
So, what this piece yields is the pseudo-"death" of the artists. Death is a turning point in an artist's reputation, a synonym for oblivion. The dead artist is stripped of all human relationships, economic issues, and other worldly constraints, leaving only what we should appreciate, that is, their creations. Even after eliminating such noise, what we can see is nothing more or less than the original works, but as mentioned above, an honest evaluation is now extremely valuable.
The sole question I want to ask through this piece is a clichéd one: Are we cool yet? As this phrase indicates, artists are inevitably compelled to seek someone's evaluation. If I continue to get nothing but reserved and calculating nonsense in the future, I may even consider killing mysefl. Ideally, I would like to shake up the entire anart industry with this work and restore a state of healthy and proper evaluation, but to be frank, the odds of that are slim. Still, I am confident that the aforementioned question will be answered appropriately, whether it is a yes or a no. As long as I can achieve that, I have nothing to regret.