Why is It?

Why is it, regardless of our diverse roles, we commonly share the same lines? Love, anger, confusion, satisfaction, desire, rejection… Not that we’d ever accept such blanket direction—that we all emote from the same script—but the reviews suggest it.

The dictionary defines assumption as the act of laying claim to, or taking possession of, something; a fact or statement (such as a proposition, axiom, postulate, or notion) taken for granted. The groundwork it seems, for endless repetition if we’re each laying claim to the same thing. So the question begs…

Is there a reason why our emotional range remains strangely homogenous, not to mention suspiciously repetitive? More important, do our emotional reactions truly belong to us, or more critically, are they simply reflections of assumptions made long ago? Have we gotten so emotionally lazy that we’ve accepted substituting introspection, catharsis, and epiphany for arrogance, pretension, and blanket ease of use, just to be able to fast-forward our reactions and dilute our culpability?

My want is to explore this menu of choice within the human script, seeking not only to celebrate ourselves as we take center stage, but question whether the outcome of Life’s varying scenes belong to us to begin with.

With metal and photography I freeze the beauty of who we are. With found object and displaced imagery I then “can” the assumptions that try to make us believe otherwise.

-Steven Michael Beck