It began with the process of confession.  This was the initial step of our coming closer.  Of our eventual merger.  The first step has now been taken.  We begin to see each other clearly.  More importantly we now understand the process involved.

 

I taught you the sanctity of nakedness.  You revealed the necessity of concealment.  This has determined the axis upon which all our future expereince will spin.  We together will define the forces of complementary opposition.  Nakedness and concealment.  Confession and fiction.  These are the points of the compass we must carry with us at all times.

 

Come with me now.  Deeper into the landscape we have created.  Come with me deeper to a point that was hinted at which now must be confronted.  Again it must be said that it does not make me afraid.  The trembling of my hand is part of the illusion.

 

The trembling of my hand can serve as a symbol of the predominant figure in the landscape:  the process of deterioration.  I am a victim not only of the limitations of my species but of my inability to indulge in moderation.

 

We have come closer and we will come closer still.  We will together be witness to my demise.  It is necessarily part of the experiment and like all scientists I am unafraid.  Come with me and watch the art and the science take its toll.

 

We will see nicotine stains and empty glasses.  We will mark carefully the progress of my hairline and my gums.  We will record with pure notation memory loss and the decline of imaginative thought.  We will watch my shaking hands. 

 

I have donated my body in advance to the science of deterioration.  It is the only common denominator and the most predominant figure.  The tree grows and falls.  Turns to soil.  A new tree grows.  This is something of the nature of art.  It is in this pure form that my experiments began and it is in this form they continue.

 

                                                           Murdoch Burnett

                                                           July, 1980