Gallery Submission

Name:

Ashton Applewhite

E-Mail:

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Concept:

I've chosen this minimalist design because it exemplifies the transitory nature of life on earth. In death we are all anonymous. The thought that we will be remembered for more than a generation after our deaths is an illusion. "Jane Doe" represents this nullification of identity. She is a testament to the way in which contemporary society is fast turning individuals into an accretion of numbers, the sum of all their phone calls and credit card transactions, in order to facilitate every more targeted marketing campaigns by megacorporations and eliminate the differences between us.

This may be cynical, but it's humorous as well. There's a certain freedom in ridding ourselves of any illusion of persistent identity and yielding to the consumer tyranny of the modern state. This headstone shows that we understand the joke at both the corporate and the cosmic level, that we understand the joke's on us, and that we're laughing all the way to the grave.

Bio:

Ashton Applewhite is a writer who lives in New York City under her own name.