How do we understand destruction in our everyday lives?
Globally, we are facing the destruction of our natural ecosystems, as well as international conflicts of force and influence; nationally we have, in our immediate past, experienced politically motivated attacks (9/11), natural disasters (Hurricane Katrina), and man-made dilemmas (to drill for oil in Alaska or not). Locally, in Kansas, we remember the Greensburg tornado and the ongoing debate over the Douglas County wetlands and the construction of the South Lawrence Trafficway.
When we are upset with our enemies, we destroy their buildings. When a building is no longer useful, it is demolished.
It seems appropriate that in consideration of construction/destruction I conclude the following:Neither is absolute.
People are constantly moving things around. We move things around both materially and conceptually. We all do it and we do it all the time. We put words together in different ways to illustrate our thoughts and ideas and we manipulate the physical world for the same reasons. These actions mean one thing to one person and something else to another. In moving things around, in changing the meaning, can we be sure we are constructing a thought or destroying one? The distinction between construction and destruction may seem simple. The obvious is easy…or is it? To destroy one idea is to replace it with another.
Richard Klocke, Exhibition Designer
Spencer Museum of Art
I was diagnosed of a terminal illness in 2000. My old body (pre-2000) is being deconstructed and reconstructed as a result of my illness and my medications. GK
