Death Feedback
As part of the installation work, ‘You Will Die (Pothos on Fence)’ a feedback box was set up to collect participants’ thoughts on death and the artwork. The work was shown at The Old Ambulance Station (Nambour/Namba) in 2024 and 52 responses were collated and are presented below. All names have been removed and the spelling altered only when necessary. Huge thank you to all who participated.
Words that repeatedly appeared in the feedback include: loved, inevitable, ready, great, time, never, suffering, space, scary, process, ok, sad, leave, hope, fearful, angry, accept, terrified, love, living, death, water, plants, die, nature, interesting, good, negative, juxtaposition, butterfly, aliveness, more, no, words, vines, none, maybe, visible, twine, tubes, big, permanent, grow.
handwritten death feedback
QUESTION 1: How do you feel about death?
/ I feel uncomfortable about it. I know I will have to accept it one day, but I dont know how. The more I talk to older people the more they reassure me.
/everyone does through it. Doesn’t matter
/ Yes
/ Great! Excited
/ Jawsome! Bazinga! (+ bart-esque drawing)
/ Death can be scary. But I’d rather die than live forever.
/ I am scared of death
/ terified
/ I try to embrace suffering and the impermanence of life + death. But the idea of losing my loves still scares my heart.
/too hard to fit in this response. But since I have this space I feel the need to fill it. Which is kind of how I feel about life and time we have, it must be filled, because emptiness is as good as being dead, and I reject that with every breath and word and inch of space you gave me.
/ bring on the void & the semblance of my sins?? Pretty accepting of the process though will miss…
/ looking forward to it
/ I feel death is life upside down
I feel love and grief are conjoined
I dont really want to die just yet
I know that I am dying right now
/ sometimes I feel fine with the thought of dying in a meaningless accident
/ fearful – not so much of my death, but of potential pain and suffering. I feel almost peaceful about my death itself – trusting my soul to the universe. Fearful & sad – for the death of loved ones – for our loss of them.
/ depends on the day!
/ I don’t know how I ‘feel’ but I know that it’s real. I hope I am in a position to accept it with grace. Although I like being alive (smiley face icon)
/ It’s coming
/ I have my funeral playlist ready and I live my life fully from heart with sunny optimism
/ I have no problem with death – it’s inevitable & I know were I am going (heart icon)
/not bad!
/ It is avoidable
/ Blissful, ready to float into the unimaginable and live again.
/ sadness
/ Ambivalent
/ The more I want it, the further it seems to get
/ Great
/ Depends. It’s seemingly inevitable, yet feels distant.
/ After being in the realms + being/feeling so loved + accepted I hope I am ok to ‘go’
/ It’s something that I rarely think about with my human loved ones. I am around it all the time in the garden, a constant cycle of death and life and of of (mostly) complete acceptance. I don’t have that fame feeling with loved ones; with the people I love, it’s a bit more scary
/ great, how can you die if you’ve never been full born? Dieing is part of nature until the true self is realised
/Death is not something I look forward to. This is not because of heaven or hell or things the like but because I love life!
/ curious
/ cautiously optimistic. I am so enamoured of the many joys of this life, that I could never look forward to it’s cessation, but I strive to nurture a curiosity/excitement for the parting of the veil and the revelation of the final great mystery
/ I feel ok as long as I die of old age
/ It intrigues me, but I’m not ready for it anytime soon!
/ I am terrified by it – It freaks me out to know it will happen on day and I can’t control it and I may never finish everything.
/ part of life, going to happen, natural, induced, old age, sick, sad but time to celebrate life. Needed to replenish what is needed on earth
/ start of a new life
/ It should be talked about with comfort + ease as is life
/ If I didn’t have kids, it wouldn’t bother me. However now I worry that I could leave them too early or they might leave me & that’s anxiety provoking
/ Angry (angry emoji face)
/ Pretty cool (cool emoji face with sunnies)
/50-50 aye? A natural part of life. Everything must come to an end.
/ Life
what goes around comes around
/ A beautiful cycle, bring me to the dust
/ I feel connected to it, unafraid and unapologetic, it’s a part of life. Apart of me…The inevitable
/ It’s a cycle of life often viewed negatively but the process is of high, passionate & violent emotion which should be savoured & appreciated for what it is
/ it is inevitable, then why fear its arrival
You Will Die (Pothos on Fence) installation at the Old Ambulance Station, Nambour
QUESTION 2: How do you feel about the ‘You Will Die’ artwork?
/ indifferent but its interesting
/ #slays
/ I love that its living. “Living Death”
/ I like it, because in my opinion the plants represent life, but much like us, they won’t live forever. They will die.
/ I (heart icon) it
/ it’s beautiful because it’s living plants but it also makes me feel sad.
/ I love this peace. The message (literal message) delivered through nature, appeal to me.
The little water tubes make the piece for me. It adds timeline for me…when the water runs dry
/ It’s excellent I love that you are keeping the plants alive in face of the inevitable death
/ I really love it, took my eye immediately and love the juxtaposition found as I spied the test tubes!
/ outstanding
/ I love the juxtaposition of the rusty gate, in itself a portal or entrance, an exit, a path – with the pothos.
/ I like the use of temporary fencing
/ peacefull – that we are all part of this world. All living beings will die and that it is the circle of life. We are so fortunate to get to experience life.
/ Honestly, my favourite piece.
/ Love it. (should see my Kitchen).
/ I love it
/ interesting
/ Alrighty then (in an irish accent)
/ I wonder how the “written” words will impact the life of the pothos
/ Sounds limiting
/ all the emotions
/ Confronted mildly
/ It made me smile
/ Great
/ faint, quiet, impactful, pleasant, yet deep.
/ I (heart icon) it Princess Fee (heart icon). I remember holding the chicken as it died in my arms at King St. I closed my eyes after we chatted as she passed. I asked her what she (PTO) wanted to be when/if she came back. She said she would love to be a human as have such capacity to love. I said maybe wait a while…she choose a butterfly after I shower her the butterfls from FNQ in our minds. I told her she could fly! When she ‘died’ she took her last breath as she turned + looked up at me I closed my eyes again + when I opened them a massive butterfly flew into my face. Death is life (heart icon)
/ I love the notion of living things as art. There is something wonderful about artwork as a living thing!! And there is something even better about it exploring the idea of death. I like the intertwining of these two concepts & it makes me think these 2 things aren’t so different from each other, after all.
/ It very strongly depicts the transient nature of our existence
/ I like it. It challenges the negative conotations of death. Why does death have to be negative
/ I will die if it fall on me (face icon)
/ it exerts a calming influence of my pysche one part contemplation of the metaphysical infinite, and one part garden on a wall. It’s good squishie
/ it is a cool collection of plants
/ Love it!!! It makes me smile about the fact that we all die.
/ I love it! It made me laugh out loud because it took me a few moments to see it. I think it’s really great.
/ great metaphor, elegant, considered, barrier yet free, nature, water, life, oxygen
/ interesting
/ Important – opens dialogue shows pain shows stages of grief
/ I love that you centred it in the concept of aliveness and living and that the aliveness requires tending
/Good (happy emoji face)
/ Fuckin’ sick bring it on (sticky out face emoji) Fuck Yeah
/ gotta be real, hey?
/ Growth, beauty, end.
/ I feel strange. Organic, crude, life giving
I took shoots from mine today. I’m mourning an end of a relationships two days in. –
– water them.
/ reassured
/ kinda funny (JK)
handwritten death feedback
QUESTION 3: Any advice for improving the artwork?
/ wrapping the plants in more visible twine would be cool that or using live vine plants in a pot
/ no! Pop off queen 🙂
/ more vines
/ Not really, I think it’s abstract yet understandable, I really like that. So keep that.
/ No advice – keep doing what you’re doing
/ no notes! Your work is beautiful
/ none….your work is amazing
/ the test tubes could be more visible
I think they are such a great element as the life giving water but also the source of rust
the water is a big part of the
/ Nup
/ keep making
/ please keep leaning into your unique, loving soul and sharing your art with us Fee (love heart icon)
/ none
/ None, Love the concept. Stay inspired.
/ Make More.
/ no.
/ ?
/ Change it to “will you live?”
/ the vines I think should have dark coloured flowers
/ I could vision some dead plants in pots
/ I like it.
/ Thank you for letting them ‘live’ again (heart icon)
/ Not particularly (smiley face)
I’d love to see this in even bigger form & for the plants to be permanently growing and train to form the words YOU WILL DIE. I’m thinking a permanent addition to the street of Namaba
*oh & for the Pothos to be drowned at the end of this rather than returned to nature – very invasive weed (smiley face) but it would be like killing the artwork which might be a bit sad (smiley face with straight line mouth)
/ The fence, Id make it more feminine
/ Denser plants with a combination of dead and alive plants. It is great!
/ Something on the white wall behind…very light blue sky & very faint clouds to represent no end concept
/ maybe make it more secure?
/ flowering vines trained over time.
More test tubes!!
I (heart icon) you
/ it might be better if it has more vibrence and diversety
/ I’d love to see it after it’s grown more – the jutaposition of growth and death
/ I don’t think so
/ maybe have it away from the wall and 2 plants wrapped around each letter to give it slightly more body and the concrete bases
/ just do and know what is inside you
/ nope (smiley face) I love that you have woven words into plants to speak in silence
/ Make the writing more clear !!(happy face)
/ make it more presentable and advertise it like big arrow pointing it
/ Slay Queen!
/ Stick to it!
/ Dont ask
/ Art can’t be improved it is ever developing and evolving
love what you have done so far
/ more death
ENJOY!
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