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Look at Life Squarely and Forgive It for What It Is,
2023 from
4 Tenets for Europe,
London UK, 15 September 2023.
2023
Billboards and posters, digital and paper
2 of
4 Tenets for Europe
Moving image: 192 x 288px, 704 x 960px mp4 video, RGB colour, duration 0:10; 1080 x 1920px mp4 video, RGB colour, duration 0:05 and 0:10; 1920 x 1080 mp4 video, RGB colour, duration 0:30
Static digital: 720 x 1056px, 864 x 432px, 1080 x 1920px, 1600 x 400px jpeg, RGB colour.
Paper: 1350 x 2980mm, 1375 x 2905mm CMYK colour.
15 September 2023
Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, UK
4 Tenets for Europe
appeared on billboards simultaneously across Europe on 15 September 2023 to mark the United Nations International Day of Democracy.
The second of the
4 Tenets for Europe
is
Look at Life Squarely and Forgive It for What It Is.
In this second tenet, the artist paraphrases the modernist novelist Virginia Woolf.
NOTE
Adeline Virginia Woolf, née Stephen, (1882 – 1941) was an English novelist, critic and feminist writer. She is considered one of the most important modernist authors of the 20th Century. She pioneered a 'stream of consciousness' approach to narrative in which the naturalistic, fleeting impressions experienced by her characters, take the place of traditional plot.
Firrell left formal education at age 14 because he 'had no more use for it'. Instead, he educated himself by reading the complete works of Virginia Woolf, while walking through the Norfolk countryside.
He was of the view that reading Woolf assiduously would equip him for life in a way that conventional schooling couldn't. Where this idea came from is now lost to memory.
Look at Life Squarely and Forgive It for What It Is,
c. late 2022, prototype for
4 Tenets for Europe
later abandoned.
Firrell came to share Woolf's view that life is something to be lived up to, seen for what it is without illusions, and forgiven for all its faults. It is only by confronting and grasping the essential truths of life that one is able to live fully.
