self immolation

Today I was thinking about materials detriorating. There used to be cement elephants in Carluke Highstreet when I was growing up and I remember thinking that the way such a strong material fell apart was beautiful, and that it could be used to make something even more beautiful. I was thinking about sculptures within sculptures, with the outer sculpture made of a faster deteriorating material than the inner sculpture. I was also thinking about different things that cause a material to deteriorate like sea, air, fire and people. I did some small drawings of something burning as I think thats probably the quickest way to make a material deteriorate and I was reminded of some research I had done previously into self immolation, the process of commiting suicide from burning yourself to death. Im fascinated by what would drive someone to kill themsleves in this kind of way since suicide is usually seen as a quick and easy way of escaping from life (even though many suicide methods can accidentally last days, I believe theyre usually intended to be fast acting). My search eventually brought to my attention a monk who self immolated in Vietnam, caught on camera in an extremely famous photo by Malcolm Browne. For more information click the photo.