THE COLLECTOR (2017)

This intervention features a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter painted with a Death’s Head Moth and pierced by a life-sized needle. It explores themes of mortality, memory, and the human impulse to deny death. The moth, marked with a skull and fatally drawn to light, mirrors the F-104’s legacy as both a technological achievement and a dangerous aircraft, nicknamed “The Widow Maker.”

The work gains deeper significance through its connection to a Belgian pilot who died in an F-104 crash. Following his death, a relative began collecting military aircraft and fighter jet material—transforming personal grief into preservation. By linking the jet to the act of collecting, often seen as a form of death denial (as noted by anthropologist Ernest Becker), the piece reflects humanity’s attempts to preserve meaning and defy impermanence.

The life-sized needle piercing both the moth and the jet evokes the practices of butterfly and moth collectors, who pin specimens in lifelike poses, preserving them as though they were still alive—an act of death denial. This gesture further underscores the fragility of life and the futility of attempting to preserve it through objects. Collector ultimately invites reflection on how loss drives the urge to gather, preserve, and confront mortality.

© Text by Tom Simons
© Pictures by Tom Herck