A Day in The Life of a Preacher Man
And so we finally come to the final part of the Requilibrium project. This was undoubtedly the most challenging exercise as it had to be performed convincingly, but crucially I was relying on the public to respond to 'The Messiah' preaching about Requilibrium; hence there was an element of chance which played an important role. It had never been my intention to try and stimulate a certain response from the public that I wanted to display, let me clarify by saying that I did not fully know what the public response would be and allowed individuals to speak for themselves with their own opinion. If I did just force the public to have the response I wanted then this project would have been a complete failure as I wouldn't have learned anything about social judgment of different belief systems.
Yes I know I was forming a specific image for my religion and obviously wanted to cause an element of controversy over it, this being that I highlighted Requilibrium to be a flawed belief system and taking a direct approach to the delicate subject of preaching in Britain. Nevertheless, I did not try to make the public love or hate Requilibrium and 'The Messiah', I performed as 'The Messiah' and I stayed in role. I did not follow the largest response to gain a wider audience, as this would not have been a natural response with reliable or valid information.
Yes I know I was forming a specific image for my religion and obviously wanted to cause an element of controversy over it, this being that I highlighted Requilibrium to be a flawed belief system and taking a direct approach to the delicate subject of preaching in Britain. Nevertheless, I did not try to make the public love or hate Requilibrium and 'The Messiah', I performed as 'The Messiah' and I stayed in role. I did not follow the largest response to gain a wider audience, as this would not have been a natural response with reliable or valid information.
Throughout the description of public responses I am about to go through I will not go into too much detail about my personal opinion of what they mean, I will write a conclusion to summarize my understanding of the concepts explored. I would like readers to have their own opinion of what the public responses may mean and share any thoughts about the concepts of individual beliefs and their relationship to society and religion, British judgments of different belief systems being openly shared and preached about and the acceptance of different religious beliefs.
The responses were varied and all had their own significance. I was located in Bournemouth Town Centre dressed and in role as 'The Messiah' with my business cards in hand, which had the website address and name Requilibrium on them to help further inform the public and record their responses. Many people were quite stunned initially by my appearance, this led to some members of the public avoiding me and others approaching me asking who I was and what I was doing. I would inform these people that I was spreading the word about Requilibrium and that I was 'The Messiah' who had created the belief system. Everyone saw this as absurd and bizarre. Some people walked away with the card, others rejected to take it and some just stayed to find out more about Requilibrium.
There were many interesting responses which I will use as case studies to give you a clearer idea of what some people thought about Requilibrium and the fact that I was preaching.
The young man pictured above pointing at 'The Messiah' was working at the time to promote LoveFilm. He came up to me and kindly asked me what I was doing. Once I told him about Requilibrium he gave me a a very strange look and began to act quite sarcastic. After I was finished preaching and was wearing normal clothes I decided to approach him and inform him that it was actually an art project and who I really was. He seemed stunned and told me that he fully believed that I was genuinely, as he put it - "some nutter preaching about his religion". To me it seemed that everyone thought I was a strange preacher who was trying to gather a congregation of followers, which is obviously good in terms of the validity of the project. But it showed that even when people hardly knew anything about Requilibrium, and were just aware of the fact that I was a preacher, this was enough to make people either think I was strange, dislike me and want to avoid me. I therefore felt like I had been outcast from society and was labelled with this image of being a 'freak' who you should avoid.
There were many interesting responses which I will use as case studies to give you a clearer idea of what some people thought about Requilibrium and the fact that I was preaching.
The young man pictured above pointing at 'The Messiah' was working at the time to promote LoveFilm. He came up to me and kindly asked me what I was doing. Once I told him about Requilibrium he gave me a a very strange look and began to act quite sarcastic. After I was finished preaching and was wearing normal clothes I decided to approach him and inform him that it was actually an art project and who I really was. He seemed stunned and told me that he fully believed that I was genuinely, as he put it - "some nutter preaching about his religion". To me it seemed that everyone thought I was a strange preacher who was trying to gather a congregation of followers, which is obviously good in terms of the validity of the project. But it showed that even when people hardly knew anything about Requilibrium, and were just aware of the fact that I was a preacher, this was enough to make people either think I was strange, dislike me and want to avoid me. I therefore felt like I had been outcast from society and was labelled with this image of being a 'freak' who you should avoid.
Once I had given this man my card he turned around to ask me what I was promoting. He had quite an in depth discussion about my beliefs and the fact that I was preaching within Bournemouth. He seemed very curious because he asked a lot of questions about Requilibrium and was actually very sincere about my quest to spread my beliefs. He encouraged me to carry on doing what I was doing and said it takes a lot of courage to stand up in public and share your beliefs; whatever they may be. It was interesting that someone could be so kind about something they had a very basic knowledge of, perhaps he himself was on a quest to spread his own beliefs or something he felt strongly about. This forced me to question whether people can just hold a personal opinion about a subject such as preaching about religious beliefs, which is separated from the influence of mainstream social opinion.
http://youtu.be/52LVcO55I4s
http://youtu.be/52LVcO55I4s
This was perhaps one of the most interesting responses received during the public performance. The man in this video was an Orthodox Christian preacher. It was quite a bizarre experience debating my religious beliefs with him. Unfortunately you can't hear the actual conversation, but he begun by getting a clear sense of what my religion was about. Once I had informed him of all of my beliefs he openly told me why my beliefs were wrong and his were right. It was actually quite easy to stay in character, because as ironic as it might sound, before this project began and during the performance, I have always despised people who preach their beliefs to others. Therefore when he was telling me why I was wrong, because I had gotten so absorbed by the character of 'The Messiah' I was very angered by this mans attack upon my own religion and began to get quite defensive' forgetting that I was doing the exact same thing as he was.
Looking back at the video I realize how strikingly similar we both were; both blinded by our own arrogance and weren't realizing that the debate wasn't leading anywhere. He told me he was right because the bible was solid evidence god exists and that Christianity is the correct religion to follow. I countered his argument with the fact that I was right because I knew that I was absolutely correct and that Requilibrium was the religion/cult that needs to be followed. This was essentially his own argument, whilst he may have been a follower of a religion and I was the creator of mine, when I asked him why; if God existed, God was right, he said because he simply was because of existing as a higher spiritual-being. The debate went on for several minutes and we continued to carry on picking flaws at each others beliefs. At the end of it he told me has was in fact happy to see another man being brave enough to speak out about his beliefs, but that it was a shame that I was preaching about the wrong religion. We exchanged cards and wished each other the best of luck.
Looking back at the video I realize how strikingly similar we both were; both blinded by our own arrogance and weren't realizing that the debate wasn't leading anywhere. He told me he was right because the bible was solid evidence god exists and that Christianity is the correct religion to follow. I countered his argument with the fact that I was right because I knew that I was absolutely correct and that Requilibrium was the religion/cult that needs to be followed. This was essentially his own argument, whilst he may have been a follower of a religion and I was the creator of mine, when I asked him why; if God existed, God was right, he said because he simply was because of existing as a higher spiritual-being. The debate went on for several minutes and we continued to carry on picking flaws at each others beliefs. At the end of it he told me has was in fact happy to see another man being brave enough to speak out about his beliefs, but that it was a shame that I was preaching about the wrong religion. We exchanged cards and wished each other the best of luck.
This response from one man was probably the most extreme. Once I had handed him my card he continued walking for a short while whilst asking me what I was promoting, telling him it was Requilibrium "the religion that'll change your life", he turned to me and responded "fuck that mate, do you want a smack in the gob?" and threw the business card back in my face. He obviously did not approve of people preaching about their religious beliefs and felt quite strongly about this.
After he had left I moved to a different area of Bournemouth Town Centre. He saw me again and threatened me to leave because he had a problem with what I was doing. At this point I realized he was clearly agitated and I didn't want a fight to break out, so I told him that Requilibrium was all part of an art project. Once I explained to him what I was actually doing he laughed, patted me on the back and said he was sorry for threatening me.
After he had left I moved to a different area of Bournemouth Town Centre. He saw me again and threatened me to leave because he had a problem with what I was doing. At this point I realized he was clearly agitated and I didn't want a fight to break out, so I told him that Requilibrium was all part of an art project. Once I explained to him what I was actually doing he laughed, patted me on the back and said he was sorry for threatening me.
I realize that ultimately the responses don't tell you everything about the way Britain perceives religious beliefs, the right to preach about them and issues surrounding this, however that's not what I set out to do. I don't want to find an answer as to how we should all be able to accept people's different religious beliefs and live peacefully within a multi-faith society because quite frankly I don't think there is a clear answer. More importantly I don't ever see this happening in the future. But one thing I do know from completing this project, is that we must at least be more accepting of each others different beliefs and try to understand them on a better level so that we don't jump to conclusions through social stereotypes of different beliefs. We are all entitled to our opinions within a democracy, but we should not condemn certain beliefs because we are angered by them and disagree with them. We have to understand that, whether your beliefs are deemed moderate or extreme, we all feel passionate about our beliefs and will defend them. Hence why essentially we are all as arrogant as each other. But it is by realizing this that we are should be able to place all beliefs on an equal level.
The project does however focus on some extremely complex issues and my last statement can in fact appear quite contradicting to the point I was trying to make. How can I say that we should be accepting of each others beliefs and yet believe that it is right to do this because I feel that it is right? I guess that what ever we choose to believe in it is going to inevitably be flawed. So does this mean we should stop believing in everything and let society come to a stand still, ruled by chaos and eventually deteriorate? Quite honestly, I don't know. But in my opinion it is the job of the artist not to provide the answer, but to ask the questions.
The project does however focus on some extremely complex issues and my last statement can in fact appear quite contradicting to the point I was trying to make. How can I say that we should be accepting of each others beliefs and yet believe that it is right to do this because I feel that it is right? I guess that what ever we choose to believe in it is going to inevitably be flawed. So does this mean we should stop believing in everything and let society come to a stand still, ruled by chaos and eventually deteriorate? Quite honestly, I don't know. But in my opinion it is the job of the artist not to provide the answer, but to ask the questions.
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