Requilibrium - Creation of 'The Messiah'
After clarifying and publishing my religious manifesto I needed to begin working on the visual and performance elements of Requilibrium. Through the influence of my research into religious and cult leaders, I wanted to focus on building a character who was the leader of Requilibrium. Through simply creating a leader, whom I openly stated obtained a superior status to any other member of Requilibrium, I formed a contradiction which completely demolished the principle of equality. I wasn't just aiming to inform the viewer that there are contradictions and flaws within any moral belief system, I was trying to get the viewer to question the striking similarities among all belief religions and cults. By exaggerating these contradictions I aimed at targeting the strictest of religious followers, who to some might be deemed as purely arrogant, and making it clear that despite what our beliefs may be we must be accepting of all beliefs.
My inspiration for the character of 'The Messiah' came from a combination of influences. I aimed at creating a character who obtained a quiet wisdom about himself, yet had a charming intellectual charisma. Contrasting to this would be a layer of satire towards 'The Messiah', whilst obtaining quite attractive qualities in a leader he is ultimately flawed by his own blind arrogance in the belief that he is universally correct in everything he says. Therefore when performing as the Messiah I tried to emulate these characteristics, however I realised that a lot of judgement and perception of 'The Messiah' would be initially based on his appearance.
I set to work creating an an appearance which highlighted the characteristics of status of 'The Messiah', whilst creating obvious satirical undertones. The result of which was a combination of the clothes of a prophet, catholic priest and notorious political leaders such as Hitler. Instead of a classical robe I used a dressing gown, this still carried a noticeable air of wisdom and authority; however, the informal use of a dressing gown mocked 'The Messiah's' and challenged his wisdom. The rest of his outfit remained formal in order to create a sense of unquestionable authority. The reason I integrated sunglasses into his appearance was to radiate a feeling of mystery behind the character, but it also seemed to help tie together an absurd character who's appearance would make most initially laugh. I made 'The Messiah' bare footed in order to present him as a leader of men who stuck to his principle of equality, a conscious decision to lower his status to those of his followers. Yet this simply contrasted with the rest of his outfit which illustrated his own importance and significance, connoting a sense of hypocrisy.
The reason the creation of a defined and distinct figure within Requilibrium was so crucial was because I wanted to take my religion to the public, not simply by the use of social media but also through a physical public performance. Therefore by acting as the lead figure of my religion/cult I was able to create a scenario which allowed me to openly explore the issue of absolute belief within your own religion or morality. I created a character the general public could respond to without the influence of knowing he was the creation of an art project. Therefore their responses contained more validity in terms of what I could gather from the meaning behind them and what this can tell us about perceptions of religious beliefs.
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