The Suicide Chronicles

(Notes on Suicide, Simon Critchley, Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2015)

The Suicide Chronicles is an ongoing project emerging from Baa Baa Baric: Have You Any Pull? by Mark Storor with the communities of St Helens. It is a long-term artistic questioning of civilisation as our most brutal act of barbarism.

St Helens, which has one of the highest rates of suicide in the UK, is a town emblematic of a devastating national trend. But it could also be the town which is prepared to collectively take this on, to find a language and a model of practice that doesn’t exist in British society at the moment so that we may together address what is happening to our communities.

The conditions of late capitalism have dealt a damaging assault on what is important here and now, in terms of how people live, and how communities come together to nurture and support one another to lead emotionally, spiritually, psychologically, and philosophically healthy lives. Ultimately, The Suicide Chronicles asks: What is important? How are we responsible to each other? What kind of world do we want to live in? And how can we hold one another within it?

Each Chronicle takes focus on one individual story or one particular aspect of suicide ensuring that the work is sharp, vivid and truthful. In coming together, the collective Chronicles work in dialogue with each other, giving form to the infinitely complex and multi-layered nature of suicide.