Sometimes it seems as though we’ve lost the point somewhere along the line. Sometimes it seems as though we haven’t evolved at all or, at the very least, that we’ve taken a couple of ‘wrong’ turns along the way.

Then again, in the same way that our mothers (hopefully) never said that life was going to be all peaches and cream, no one ever said that the twist in the cocktail of evolution was going to be a ‘positive’ one. Perhaps everything is perfect just as it is, and whatever twists may come were always meant to be.

What is more than certain is that no one is near being ‘in control’, no one except perhaps that human incarnation, greed. And, on the sixth day, greed gave birth to blind pursuit in the western colonial mold that has opened the door for a cultural and human void perhaps best described by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers in Californiacation as follows:

“Space may be the final frontier, but it’s born in a Hollywood basement.”

How do we fail to see that we live in a closed system where the pain of our fellow beings is our own and where greed and blinkered self-seeking must be replaced, very smartly, with giving and nurturing, if we are to survive? For even so-called ‘love’ is questionable in the days of our lives where value systems are increasingly based on media stereotyped materiality and model citizenship defined by material wealth and/or good looks.

Against this backdrop, ‘Project Apology’ is an ongoing video project that involves the documentation of an undertaking to apologize, in person and as a self-appointed member of humanity, to members of all of the non-human animal species on the planet that are being adversely affected by human activity. Obviously such a mandate includes every last living creature and, as such, presents a very tall order, the unmanageability of such an undertaking becoming a big part of its content as a piece of art – in pushing for a greater degree of acknowledgement of damage done and acceptance of the urgent need for responsible change – if we and our co-inhabitants of this planet are to survive.  My intent with this project is to use satire as a means to deliver a serious message in an unconventionally and ‘amusingly’ palatable manner (so as to avoid the alienation and preachy tone that often comes with the delivery of the realities of human impact on the planet), a message whose seriousness is evident in National Geographic’s once televised estimation that 17 species of plants and animals are becoming extinct every hour.

As we are now only starting to come to terms on a large scale with our impact on the planet as a species, it is important to realize that the purpose of our new enlightenment is not to assign blame for atrocities past.  Rather it is to create awareness and dialogue around the issues that face us as a continent and a planet, so that we can move forward in a responsible and sustainable manner and hold accountable those who continue to commit crimes against our planet, our humanity and our future – despite the ‘new’ (decades held) indisputable insight into the reality of our times.

No longer can we allow ourselves to be blindfolded and bribed into feeling comfortable through social censure and the promise of material things, to be led by the carrot in front of the donkey that is the false promise of wealth and prosperity.  Let us wake up now, remove our blindfolds and stop playing a game that benefits a greedy, entitled sleepwalking minority that will destroy the planet and humanity if we do not intervene.