All Bleeding Stops Eventually, 2019

digital video, colour, sound (6 parts)

0:40 mins (each)

Courtesy Will Benedict, DIS.ART & TBA21–Academy

Will Benedict mines and subverts well-known and conventional forms of media in order to make sense of contemporary life. In All Bleeding Stops Eventually (2019), the artist presents us with six scenarios, in which near-extinct animals, the sun and the moon are given the power of human speech, addressing us directly to talk about the relationship that we humans have with nature. A polar bear talks about the melting ice caps, while a puffa fish tells us that oceans themselves have opinions. Across each of these scenes, we are implored to understand ourselves as a part of, not as separate to nature. We learn that many of the solutions we have invented to rescue the planet from ecological degradation are still in service of a future that centers humans and their continued domination over the natural world. 

Listening directly to natural lifeforms who we would usually prioritise our own needs over is both funny and sad. With their urgent message these creatures elicit emotions in us in the same way that listening to another human would. If we were to listen deeply to the things around us as if they were human, perhaps we would come closer to understanding our future alongside rather than in domination of the natural world. Recognising the subjecthood of the more than human world is crucial to our true survival on earth. As the moon says ‘can you let the ocean guide you? Otherwise you are only trying to save yourselves.’