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Death at the Wellcome Collection: The great equaliser | The Economist
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guild wars 2 power leveling, 18th century Source: The Richard Harris Collection "Vanitas Still Life with a Bouquet and a Skull" by Adriaen Van Utrecht, 1643 Source: The Richard Harris Collection IN THE West we are too busy living to think about dying, preferring to stave off thoughts of our own mortality. Eastern cultures often have a closer relationship with death and the afterlife. But a new exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London makes clear that death is never far from our collective consciousness. There are 300 objects on show—artworks, historical artefacts, anatomical illustrations and models, and ephemera from around the world. They are all from the collection of Richard Harris, a former antique-print dealer from Chicago who has amassed almost 2,000 death-related objects over the last two decades. He is only the “temporary owner of these pieces” he likes to say, with a smile.The exhibition is by no means exhaustive on the topic of “death”. It is, however, engrossing, thought-provoking and sometimes even funny. The objects are grouped into five themes irrespective of chronology, medium or culture, such as “Contemplating Death” which contains many memento mori—artworks designed to remind us of our mortality—and “Commemoration” which considers how we deal with death and mourning. Popular and high culture are juxtaposed: ancient Incan skulls, an engraving of the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” by Albrecht Dürer, a mid-19th century print of frolicking skeletons from Japan, a “vanitas” still life by Adriaen van Utrecht. Near the entrance, in a make-shift ossuary, hangs a huge chandelier made out of 3,000 plaster-cast bones in 2009 by Jodie Carey, a British artist.In many drawings and engravings the dying are depicted alongside a cloaked or grimacing death figure, confirming our deepest anxieties that it is a terrifying and lonely experience. No piece in the show expresses the isolation and tragic neglect of old age and disease more starkly than “Gentleman on Green Table”, a sculpture by June Leaf, an American artist. Made from wire, springs and bits of tin, the skeleton-figure sits hunched, weary and hopeless. The brilliance of the piece is that you want to comfort the man, not run away from him.One room is devoted to “Violent Death”, a significant theme for Mr Harris, who says he is strongly anti-war. Prints by Jacques Callot depict scenes of rape, pillaging, burning and executions in 17th-century France; plates from Francisco Goya’s “Los Desastres de la Guerra” show the barbarities committed against Spain by Napoleon’s forces in the early 19th century; and Otto Dix’s series of 51 etchings, entitled simply “Der Krieg” (“War”), explores the horrors—and also the dreariness and decadence—of the first world war in vivid and almost hyper-real detail.There are haunting images of a wounded soldier with a strange dullness in his eyes, a bomb-ravaged field lit by flares at night, a nun being raped by a soldier in a dark alley. War and killing dehumanises, scars and traumatises
gw2 power leveling. These are nasty and powerful images that are hard to shake off. They also show the seductive power of death, a theme explored in the “Eros and Thanatos” section. A 1920s etching by Ivo Saliger shows a doctor, a young girl and death intertwined in a semi-pornographic embrace. An 1896 print by Felicien Rops depicts a clearly complicit St Teresa being sexually gratified by a skeleton.The most intriguing pieces in the show are a row of anonymous, yellowing 20th-century photographs. These small snaps show medical students with cadavers, barely concealing their grins, and other groups posing irreverently with skeletons. One enigmatic print shows a group of unsmiling women in gingham dresses squinting at the sunlight while one of them gingerly holds a skull. These photos reveal our ambivalent relationship with all things deathly. We are both drawn to and repelled by our own mortality, incredibly curious, even amused, but also deeply unfamiliar and afraid. Hamlet describes death as “the undiscovered country”. This exhibition is an enthusiastic invitation to visit that country, and perhaps find it less disquieting than you might think."Death: A Self-Portrait" is at the Wellcome Collection until February 24th « Regenerating Auckland Castle: More to life Recommend23TweetSubmit to reddit View all comments (3)Add your comment Readers' comments The Economist welcomes your views. Please stay on topic and be respectful of other readers. Review our comments policy. Sort:Newest firstOldest firstReaders' most recommended rxsquared Nov 22nd 2012 1:59 GMT "IN THE West we are too busy living to think about dying, preferring to stave off thoughts of our own mortality. Eastern cultures often have a closer relationship with death and the afterlife."Not entirely a factual statement. Abrahamic religions (Christianity included in this case) are very closely related to death death - in particular - life after death. In fact, if it weren't for the human want of an afterlife, most religions would have little if any purpose. Recommend 0ReportPermalinkreply Connect The Dots Nov 21st 2012 19:05 GMT At the exact time of death, the body lightens by 21 grams.That is probably the soul leaving the body....or gassy emissions.It gives a new respect to Farting. Recommend 2ReportPermalinkreply bampbs Nov 21st 2012 18:36 GMT Being dead doesn't scare me, but the process of getting there will likely be Hell. I think that any mentally competent adult ought to have access to euthanasia. Sometimes life is not worth living, but the terror of suicide is that one might botch the job and make a bad life much worse. Recommend 4ReportPermalinkreply Comment (3)PrintE-mailPermalinkReprints & permissions About ProsperoNamed after the hero of Shakespeare's "The Tempest", an expert on the power of books and the arts, this blog features literary insight and cultural commentary from our correspondents, and includes our coverage of the art market. Follow us on Twitter @EconCulture RSS feed Advertisement Explore trending topics Comments and tweets on popular topics Economist blogsAnalects | ChinaAmericas view | The AmericasBabbage | Science and technologyBanyan | AsiaBaobab | AfricaBlighty | BritainButtonwood's notebook | Financial marketsCharlemagne | European politicsDemocracy in America | American politicsEastern approaches | Ex-communist EuropeFeast and famine | Demography and developmentFree exchange | EconomicsGame theory | SportsGraphic detail | Charts, maps and infographicsGulliver | Business travelJohnson | LanguageLexington's notebook | American politicsNewsbook | News analysisProspero | Books, arts and culturePomegranate | The Middle EastSchumpeter | Business and management Most popular Recommended Commented
Death at the Wellcome Collection: The great equaliser | The Economist
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