The title for this blog site is also for an art exhibition of mine. ‘A Clinical Practice’ was exhibited recently; it added new work to my original submission towards my Masters degree at AUT. I’ve included graphic posters - both for the initial (2006) & subsequent (2009) exhibition.
A Clinical Practice investigated a contemporary representation for suicide. The following is from my exegesis & sums up the project.
Anyone who has taken their own life becomes the ‘author’ of their own death, and the researcher is the ‘reader’ left to interpret, relive, and reconsider this final irrevocable action. In a sense the author is still omniscient while we take the role of voyeur, extrapolating backwards from the event, looking for insights as to why.
As Mathew Piantalto writes in his thesis on suicide, ‘the problem a suicide leaves is a “whydunnit” on one level is glaringly obvious, because for one reason or another, this person chooses to die.
This final ending is seldom witnessed; leaving a dead body that invites comparisons to a CSI scenario, complete with clues that need deciphering in the best traditions of Sherlock Holmes, inviting narration and fictionalization.
A Clinical Practice was my response to the suicide of my friend J.
all work is copy-write by Paul Chapman
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