What follows is a rewrite / re-edit of my Masters Thesis in Visual Art and Design, titled "Visions of Death". This is a document I have wanted to revist for some time, and here, now, some decade and a half after its original publication, I have reworked and added clarity to the text that a younger version of myself could not achieve.
Chapter 4: Contemporary Practice
Contemporary culture and visual art have produced an incredible volume of popular material that contains death as a central subject. From popular forensic TV crime fighting shows such as CSI and countless video games, representations and reproductions (or perhaps simulations54 As Jean Baudrillard would have us believe, in a post-industrial and modern world, what we see on TV screens and computer displays can be seen as ‘simulations’ instead of representations) of death are in nearly limitless supply. This chapter will discuss the 2009 film After.Life and the 2002 work of American video artist Bill Viola, Observance as two examples in which contemporary culture produces material that address the subject of death in a creative manner.
Artefacts that I have created as a part of this study will also be discussed.
In the 2009 film After.Life, written and directed by Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo a young woman, Anna, (played by Christina Ricci) appears to die in a car accident, following a disagreement with her partner.
The film follows the Anna after ‘waking up’ in the morgue, apparently still alive, conversing with her mortician as he begins to prepare her body for burial.
Anna appears to speak only to the mortician, but attempts to communicate with her partner several times throughout the film. She is injected many times with some chemical substance to ‘relax her muscles’ when family members visit the morgue to view her body. For a great deal of the film, Anna is depicted in the nude. While she is not overtly sexualised as a desirable female form in the film, opinion on this matter is mixed, with Vic Holtreman’s review of the film noting that Anna is:
‘… naked for a large part of the film. While that isn’t exactly cause for complaint – it did (for me, anyway) knock points off the “legitimate” factor of the film and made it seem more exploitative.’55
Meanwhile, Michael Gingold’s review states that
‘Ricci embodies her in compelling fashion—and sometimes literally, in long later stretches where she plays her part completely nude, and completely without self-consciousness’56
While this is not the place to discuss the difference between what it is that constitutes the ‘naked’ and the ‘nude’, it is difficult to view the film without recalling Edgar Allan Poe's opinion that there is no topic more poetic than the death of a beautiful woman.57
While the depiction Anna in the nude could also be a way of displaying the character's vulnerability to her mortician, it does raise other issues such as the eroticisation of death in contemporary cinematic practices58 (Bianca Barling provides an in-depth study of this practice in her Master's Thesis: “The Eroticisation of Death and Dying in Contemporary Cinematic Practices” (University of South Australia, 2007).
This, however, does not deter from the central purpose of the film – to invite the viewer to meditate upon the concept of mortality, and whether our consciousness dies with our physical bodies.
Thus, After.Life is a difficult and problematic film to watch and analyse, as it challenges the traditional notion of the afterlife supported by Christianity and other belief systems.
What does happen after life? For many, the body is simply tossed into the soil, a stone is tossed upon it, and below, the body may physically decompose. (Or be turned to ashes and dust through the process of cremation), then tossed by weeping survivors into the ocean, a park, or wherever they gain agency to do so. The death of an individual is not the death of the memory of the individual. This resonates with kin, friends, and associates alike long after the processes supporting life cease.
New Media Art is far from new. Michael Rush discusses the work of American video artist Bill Viola in the book New Media Art in late 20th century Art. Viola's work focuses on themes of life, death, and rebirth, and is motivated by, as Rush explains: ‘issues of identity and spiritual significance in the modern world’59.
Viola's work also focuses on the transition between emotions from moment to moment, utilising the technology of cinema to allow the viewer to see what is normally imperceptible60. A discussion of his techniques are discussed in Mark Hansen's "The Time of Affect, or bearing witness to life".
In Viola's 2002 piece, Observance, Viola presents the viewer with a single screen that contains the slowed, anguished and mournful expressions of several individuals who Hansen describes as ‘overcome with emotion, … seem to be looking at some unknown object just outside the edge of the screen’61.
When viewing Observance, it is not through any large stretch of the imagination that the individuals represented in the piece could be looking at an open casket, or other terribly moving subject. While I have reached this conclusion through my own lived experience, others may believe that the represented individuals are experiencing something else. Perhaps even the shock of being diminished from individuals to memento mori themselves. Viola’s work ultimately wants us to achieve a subjective, personal response, that while may not be directly shared with others, inevitably influences them, as Mark Hansen explains:
‘If Viola’s newest work [Observance] shows us the way towards a newly discovered potential within ourselves for mourning, this is, I submit, because it takes us beyond the subject as shame, turning this latter outward and harnessing the force it seeks to contain toward the forging of a different, collective investment.’62
While the work I have produced is intended to be viewed intimately, shared experiences are inevitable within an exhibition context. As a result, it is my wish that the work by viewed on an intimate basis, by one individual at a time. To achieve this, the work shall be displayed on small screens that will optimally facilitate only one viewer at a time.
In lingering, a piece created to evoke the fragility and transience of human life, I have represented a young woman at peace, in shock, fear, and finally, in a place that is filled with uncertainty, both physical and mental. The viewer is invited to linger and time is stretched as they challenge their own notions of experience, memory, and the fragility of existence.
lingering also explores the notion of the after, but not in any direct way, and can be commonly linked to the notion of the afterlife, even if this is not its key intent – it displays the mutability and transient nature of emotion, breath and the state of being alive by using digital video, a medium that is never truly fixed, but ephemeral and constantly shifting states.
Another video piece, The Shining Path plays on notions raised by the false perception that stone and monuments last forever. In it, I move away from the camera as I am enveloped in light. Across the screen appear many monuments of angels, which slowly fade, as though memories. The Shining Path also exploits the pre-existing Christian iconography of the angel, and while perhaps not as beautiful as the rich ruin of the Angel of Grief, intends to use widely understood notions of death, the afterlife and the ‘white light’ rumoured to be experienced by those who have near-death experiences63.
The video work I have produced is influenced by Viola, and utilises slowly transitioning images and overlays to blend symbolic elements with time. It takes advantage of the unfixed nature of digital video, interpolation and other techniques to produce imagery that is ephemeral and ethereal.
Conclusions
Death is a profound and difficult subject to represent, but by using various visual analogies and symbols to refer to it in a non-menacing manner, images that are at once beautiful, mournful and emotive can be produced. While such images cannot prevent us from dying, it is my opinion that they are able to ease personal anxieties regarding death.
Death is as inevitable as anything we know, an equaliser, and a subject that has generated much beautiful, and horrifying art. The representation of death is likely to continue far into the future, as it has been a topic prevalent in visual art for many centuries, and isn't likely to go away as an issue that remains a fundamental concern of human existence.
By surrounding ourselves with images of the deceased who are dear to us as individuals, we are both comforted and anguished by the perceived presence of someone, even if they are physically absent. Our sense of loss is at times great and overwhelming, but through the contemplation of images, can be lessened, or perhaps provoked.
While some people may hope that death itself is eliminated through advances in medical technology, it does not appear that this will be the case in any foreseeable future64. While human life expectancy has lengthened due to advances in medicine, hygiene, and the eradication of many diseases, the prospect of becoming immortal is still very distant.
I am not certain that I would opt to live in a world without death.
In the process of this producing the artwork that accompanies this study, I have experienced feelings of whimsy, delight and frustration in cycles of experimentation. I have constantly evaluated my personal, subjective reaction to the work as it became more resolved. It is my hope that each viewer will be able to construct their own conclusions regarding the meaning, and intent of the work, which will be a result of whatever their experience and pre-conceptions allow.
Creating work that relates to death, however, is somewhat different. It is difficult to consider my own mortality in any context, let alone the artwork supporting this study, as I know that I do not want to die any time soon. I am not done creating.
By analysing and contemplating upon images that take a terrifying topic and transform it into a thing of beauty and contemplation, I can slowly entertain the notion that a seat alongside the reaper and his scythe may not be as discomforting as my biological urge to continue surviving suggests it might be.
Footnotes
54: As Jean Baudrillard would have us believe, in a post-industrial and modern world, what we see on TV screens and computer displays can be seen as ‘simulations’ instead of representations.
55: Vic Holtreman, “After.Life Review” Screen Rant, http://screenrant.com/afterlife-review-vic-53207/ (accessed 16/11/10)
56: Michael Gingold, “After.Life Film Review” Fangoria, http://www.fangoria.com/index.php?id=499:afterlife-film-review&option=com_content&catid=50:movies-tv&Itemid=181 (accessed 16/11/10)
57: Bronfen, xiv.
58: Bianca Barling provides an in-depth study of this practice in her Master's Thesis: “The Eroticisation of Death and Dying in Contemporary Cinematic Practices” (University of South Australia, 2007).
59: Michael Rush, New Media in late 20th Century Art, (London: Thames & Hudson, 1999), 141.
60: A discussion of this can be found in Mark Hansen “The time of affect, or bearing witness to life” Critical Inquiry vol 30, number 3 (2004): 584-626.
61: Hansen, 623.
62: Ibid, 626.
63: Several anecdotes of near death experiences can be found in Kastenbaum’s Death, Society and Human Experience.
64: Such a fanciful notion requires further advances from the combined fields of medicine, chemistry and biology. There is the belief that human life can be extended for long periods of time through processes such as suspended animation, which in turn, raises further ethical issues and considerations beyond the scope of this study.
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