Meaninglessness

Meaninglessness is a performance film based on the sculptural work by fine artist Figan Dastan and theatrical interpretation by actor Kieran Luxton.
Dastan’s work focuses on humanitarian issues, inequality and dictatorial behaviour in communities. In her work Meaninglessness, Dastan transformed a woman’s pain into a small figurine sculptures of soldiers that became an abstract representation of thousands of individuals and their silence. To hear her and the performers speak about the project, watch the second half of my documentary Dazzle & the Art of Defense.

Distan created a series of writings to accompany her sculptural work. A section reads:

I heard a mother crying after her lost son, he was just nineteen years old.
She was asking questions in tears to politicians,
Why did you send my son to death on someone else’s country, for someone else’s war?
Why we have to fight, what for…?
She was struggling to handle her own pain and anger, her voice was bleeding…
I shut my eyes, and in that darkness, I saw her son as a blinded soldier,
That made me realize what is happening in another part of the world.
And basically, we call it News

Commissioned by The Gallery, Arts University Bournemouth
Directed, Produced and Cinematography by Julia Alcamo
Based on the work by Figan Dastan and an interpretation by Kieran Luxton
Original music by The Neomatic Collective, William Hernandez-Abreu, Paul Keeley