Return to Me My Fear, 2009 vinyl, wood, crepe paper, plastic flowers, boom box, audio track
The audio track weaves Slayer's God Send Death with Echo & the Bunnymen's The Killing Moon, presenting opposing ideas of fate and freewill.
Return to Me My Fear was created for the show Marginalia in Anchorage, Alaska. Based on the book, Le Roman Du Lievre, by Francis Jammes, the title of the piece reflects one of Hare's last wishes to St. Francis after realizing he is uncomfortable in his new world of heaven. After leading the famished animals to their final resting place in heaven, Hare remains attached to his earthly routine of living in anxiety and fear. St. Francis went to God and asked what should be done to make Hare content? God sent a sudden and bloody death by the hands of an approaching farmer, as foreshadowed right before Hare originally met and joined St. Francis' journey. It is unclear whether Hare had given in to St. Francis' promises of heaven and accepted his fate willingly, or if his disbelief caused him to die with the fear he so held onto.
The children's game of Musical Chairs uses the fate of one's location in relationship to a chair when the music stops to determine who stays in the game. A type of fear is associated with playing the game since no particular skill helps the participant obtain a better position of winning, yet some people are better at it than others. This fear is similar to the uncertainty and irony of how fate and freewill work together to orchestrate life.
