'What will survive of us is love..'

5th December 2015

'Take a moment from your busy life. Take some time to reflect on Death......what does it mean to you? How does it feel for others? The journey we will take affects the way we live. Let's talk about Death'.

Bristol Museum and Art Gallery 

24th October 2015 - 13 March 2016

Much of my work is concerned with the human form, our physicality and to what it is to be human; attempting to deconstruct aspects of humanity in so much as we ourselves are the canvas. This exhibition, featuring over 200 items dedicated to showing how human beings have approached death and dying around the world and across time, was a good place to start.

From the Mexican Day of the Dead and Victorian mourning rituals, to mummification practices and fantasy coffins, this incredibly diverse exhibition reveals stories behind the most universal of experiences. It was curated by Amber Druce.

"A dead body can be seen as the ultimate representation of death. Buddhist monks meditate on the different stages of decomposition, known as the 'nine cemetery contemplations'.The aim is to understand that no one is bound to their body forever."

I found the English accoutrements of death - mortuary slab, the 'time of death' clock, the shroud, the coffin etc. rather jarring, with the addition of the 'wrapped body' forcing one to confront the finality and the physical reality of the end of life. Alongside the clinical death experience there was an array of sculptural and decorative objects showing how death is approached in other cultures and here it appears as an obvious 'celebration' of life (Mexican Day of the Dead). One gets a sense of the departed moving on whilst still being part of the here and now. Therefore from horror to heaven the array of ' Vanitas' paintings, sculptures, talismans and religious artefacts gave an insight into the ceremony and celebrations surrounding death. The shrunken heads and Mayan death masks were particular favourites of mine.

'What will survive of us is love' wrote the poet Philip Larkin. What physically survives is something different. Whether we are buried or cremated, our bones can remain for hundreds, even thousands, of years. What we choose to do with those remains can depend on whether we see them as part of the person we loved in life or just the empty shell of that person.