2-channel video Installation, DurATion: 55:45
The video installation "The Body Is Temporary, But I am Forever" attempts to visualize a conspiratorial ideology taking root. Its title forms the central belief on which the rest of The Ghost’s reality is built upon.
Consider the phrase correlation does not equal causation. Sometimes the brain declares something to be a pattern when that is simply not the case. The video installation brings this issue with pattern recognition to the forefront. During its one-hour run time, it slowly changes. It appears to be repeating itself on a one-minute loop while a gradual shift unfolds instead.
Its central repetition, “The body is temporary, but I am forever.” Turns into, “Make me the martyr I crave to be” at the end. Both phrases carry a similar implication of life after death. The connotations of the language used, however, changes. The initial statement is abstract and could even carry a positive message. One may die, but the spirit will live. The final phrase implicates someone who is seeking out the opportunity of a grandiose death. This change from passive to active is a reference to Umberto Eco’s 1995 essay Ur-Fascism in which he lays out some basic tenants of this surprisingly hard-to-define ideology. It takes a particular basis in the eleventh rule, which is as follows.
“In such a perspective everybody is educated to become a hero. In every mythology the hero is an exceptional being, but in Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death. It is not by chance that a motto of the Falangists was Viva la Muerte (in English it should be translated as "Long Live Death!"). In non-fascist societies, the lay public is told that death is unpleasant but must be faced with dignity; believers are told that it is the painful way to reach a supernatural happiness. By contrast, the Ur-Fascist hero craves heroic death, advertised as the best reward for a heroic life. The Ur-Fascist hero is impatient to die. In his impatience, he more frequently sends other people to death.” (Eco 1995)
This returns us to the previous section on the habit of viewing oneself as the protagonist of reality versus a small part of a larger whole. In certain circumstances, this may spur action against the perceived antagonists. Andrew MacDonald’s The Turner Diaries inspired various acts of terrorism (most notably the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing), yet it would not have a strong effect on a layman. It is only an inspirational fantasy to those who already partake in that fantasy. It does not radicalize an individual, rather it reinforces a belief already present.