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monochrom The Experience Of Being Buried Alive, 2013
‘Buried Alive is an art and lecture performance series by art-tech group monochrom. The basic concept is to offer willing participants the opportunity of being buried alive in a real coffin underground for fifteen to twenty minutes. As a framework program, monochrom offers lectures about the history of the science of determining death and the medical cultural history of premature burial. To date, they have buried over 500 people. The series has created controversy in some places it has been staged.’
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Puppies Puppies Andrew D. Olivo 6.7.1989 – 6.7.2018, 2018
‘I think you’re beautiful. All those people who made you feel like there was nothing beautiful about you they were wrong. All those people who made you feel that femininity in a perceived boy was worthy of hell were wrong
All those people who abused you verbally physically and sexually
they were wrong
all those people who made you feel less than in a moment’s notice
they were wrong
All those people that said racist shit to you and your family growing up
they were wrong
All the times as a child where you blindly trusted people older than you and they let you down or hurt you or tried to brainwash you you weren’t in the wrong
I know at times you’ve prayed for a luckier life. A life filled with less trauma and more relaxing. A life void of having had a brain tumor. An easier life in general.’
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Carl Fredrik Hill The tomb of the artist floating on the river, 1849
Crayon 16.5 x 20.5 cm
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Catherine Heard Grave, 2013
‘In Grave the sculptures are built from the inside out, reversing the normal logic of sculptural form. The concealed interior structures become “visually” more critical than the external appearance of the pieces, when the structures are revealed using digital CT scanning technology.’
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Siah Armajani Three Tombs, 2016
‘Tomb for Heidegger is a bleak shed-like structure that articulates the philosopher’s notions of desolation, while the miniature Tomb for Arthur Rimbaud is an exquisite confection of balsa and aluminum, painted in baby blue and pink, alluding to the poet’s erotic reverie, “A Winter Dream.” Tomb for Frank O’Hara celebrates the free-association style of the American poet and curator whose work poet John Ashbery describes as having “shatter[ed] the congealed surface of contemporary academic poetry.”’
Tomb for Heidegger
Tomb for Arthur Rimbaud
Tomb for Frank O’Hara
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David Foggo Untitled, 2017
floor, sculpture, grass, shovel, rust
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Gabriel Orozco Cemetery, 2002
‘In this new series of photographs taken in July on a trip to Mali, Orozco continues his concerns with sculpture and landscape, presenting the unexpected but mesmerizing side of a cemetery in legendary Timbuktu, the mysterious city on the trans-Saharan caravan route.’
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Adam Electric Tomb, 2015
‘Multiple performers are encased in an airtight latex column; Adam creates a vacuum with his own breathing, forming a three-dimensional frieze. The human forms are dehumanised as the latex is sucked tightly around them turning them into living sculptures.’
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FX Harsono Bone Cemetery Monument, 2011
installation with 202 multiplex wood box, electric light, paper and photograph
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Maurizio Cattelan Now, 2004
‘The sculpture Now (2004) depicts a smartly suited John F. Kennedy, dead in an open coffin.’
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Enzo Umbaca Love is colder than death, 2002
‘A sculptured life size ice coffin is carried into the Luxembourg forest; at the ambient temperature it melts slowly but inexorably. This object, which refers to frozen coffins and crystal cases of fables and myths, also represents the death of a common good like water, which is the support of life.’
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Nathan Coley Unnamed, 2012
‘Unnamed is an installation of 33 altered gravestones, arranged in small, sociable groups. Mounted on bases made of simple cedar two-by-fours, these granite and limestone markers have been gathered from… Well, who knows where and under what conditions? The names of the people whose graves they marked have been carefully excised from the stones. What we’re left with are birth dates and death dates and a few sentimental dedications. Most are written in English but a few are in other languages such as Italian, German, and Chinese. By removing the gravestones from their original settings and obliterating the names of the people they were intended to commemorate, Coley evokes a disturbing condition—not simply of displacement but also of disappearance. (The wooden “batons” on which the stones sit suggest skids or pallets, amplifying the sense of impermanence.) A few social or cultural conditions can be surmised from the dates and occasional names of places and affiliations, but no sense of individual identity can be established.’
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Anu Juurak How Does It Feel Like To Die, 2008
‘Anu Juurak is an Estonian graphic artist and installation artist. Since the 1990s, her work has depicted the undefined unknown and the interpretation of death in our culture.’
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Louise Bourgeois Helping Hands, 1993
‘This is Chicago’s first major artwork to honor an important woman. Helping Hands commemorates Nobel Peace Prize winner and social reformer Jane Addams (1860 – 1935). Jane Addams established Hull House, the nation’s first settlement house in Chicago’s poor immigrant neighborhood on the Near West Side. The sculpture was created by artist Louise Bourgeois, then in her eighties. Rather than depicting Jane Addams with a figurative sculpture, Bourgeois created a series of carved black granite hands.’
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Paul Thek The Tomb, 1967
‘In 1967, Thek culminated his early career by creating a life-sized effigy of himself, dressed in a pink suit and laid to rest in a pink ziggurat tomb. The sculpture, dubbed by critics the “Dead Hippie,” seemed to capture the zeitgeist of the era. The discs on Thek’s cheeks were painted with psychedelic colors, and Thek originally surrounded the figure with paraphernalia that alluded to drug use. When it was shown at the Whitney in 1968, Vietnam War protestors left flowers by the tomb, as if the wax figure were a martyred comrade. Over time, the notoriety of the Hippie exasperated Thek. When a museum in Germany asked to exhibit it in 1981, more than a dozen years after its inception, he wrote to a friend: “I really don’t want to have to do THAT piece again! Oh God no! Not THAT one. Imagine having to bury yourself over and over.” Thek did agree to show the work, but when it was returned from Germany, he never picked it up from the shipper, and the Hippie was destroyed, or disappeared. Why Thek allowed this to happen is unclear. By one account, he simply forgot to retrieve the work from the shipper. But it’s also possible that he abandoned the Hippie out of frustration that it had never been purchased. Whatever the reason, its destruction ensured that he would never have to show the work again.’
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Lily & Honglei The Crystal Coffin of Mao, 2011
‘The augmentation is inspired by the crystal coffin displayed in Mausoleum of Mao Zedong on Tiananmen Square since 1977, a year after Mao’s death. In the twenty first century, while China has been transforming itself into a modern society in many ways and gaining more influences economically and politically around the globe, Mao’s crystal coffin, the immortal-looking shell, remains exist as a symbol of authoritarian ruling system. During spring 2011, a crackdown on dissent – including detaining many intellectuals and members of religious group – followed by distinct signs of revival of Maoist policies, has left people baffled about the future direction of China. We therefore use Crystal Coffin of Mao as main body of the virtual China Pavilion, which is topped with a tower and roof with ancient Chinese looking, as regulated by Ministry of Construction of China: architectural ‘designs must reflect traditional Chinese building styles.’
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Wang Guangle Coffin Paint, 2004
‘The basis for Wang Guangle’s 2004 Coffin Paint is the Fujian tradition of preparing oneself for the afterlife by painting one’s coffin in lacquer and every year you find yourself alive, you apply another coat. Using this as inspiration, Wang applies layers of acrylic paint twice each day to a canvas, each layer a little more removed than the previous one from the edge. The build-up of paint towards the center makes it seem 3-D creating a dramatically illusionistic work.’
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Joseph Ashong (Paa Joe) Coffins, 1998 – 2012
‘PAA JOE (with family name Joseph Ashong) is a Ghanaian figurative palanquin and fantasy coffin artist born 1947 in the region Akwapim belonging to the Ga-Adangbe people, Greater Accra Region in Ghana. Paa Joe is considered one of the most important Ghanaian coffin artist of his generation. He was involved since 1989 in major art exhibitions in Europe, Japan and the USA. His fantasy coffins are in the collections of many art museums worldwide, including the British Museum in London.’
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Shih Hsiung Chou Coffin (Long Stay), 2012
‘His artworks consist of clear perspex forms filled with viscous black recycled engine oil. Yet, the apparent simplicity of the artist’s work is deceptive. The oil in Chou’s unconventional paintings does not dry and his artistic gestures are not applied to a canvas. Instead, as the artist suggests, he is ‘practicing painting by other means’. Chou’s innovative Oil Paintings draw out dialectical relationships between material and non-material, being and non being, the known and the unknowable.’
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Luke Willis Thompson Sucu Mate – Born Dead, 2016
‘Sucu Mate – Born Dead is the result of an extended investigative process into the Old Balawa Estate Cemetery, a cemetery with a history of slavery in the Pacific island nation of Fiji. Luke Willis Thompson applied for custodial rights to a small selection of gravestones within the racially zoned site. In 2015, official approval was given to the artist from Fiji’s governing institutions to excavate anonymous material from the worker’s section, itself a former sugarcane plantation. The concrete markers were permitted to travel out of Fiji for a period of 24 months to be exhibited as art objects, and are presented here after being shown in Auckland and Brisbane. The work is, in this way, a mobile cemetery, and one that questions how human lives and dead bodies are inscribed in the order of power. The project will continue with the gravemarkers’ repatriation to Fiji and resituated within the same field from which they came. In such a way the project simultaneously prototypes both a historical continutiy and the performance of dislocation; two cultural operations with national relevance as the islands within Fiji face ecological change and the continuing submergence of their lowlands.’
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Tale of Tales The Graveyard, 2008
‘The Graveyard is a short art game created by the belgium duo known as Tale of Tales. The group, comprised of married couple Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn, is responsible for many indie games that each explore different aspects of the interactive space that is video games. The Graveyard is described by the makers as more like an explorable painting than an actual game. They play with the boundaries of games and the interactions of players as they tell the story of an old lady taking a walk through a cemetery. The game consists of the player walking their avatar of an old lady into a cemetery and up to a bench were a song remembering those who have died plays. After sitting on the bench and listening to the song being sung in Flemish Dutch with translated subtitles the player then can either remain on the bench where the music will soon start again without subtitles or simply get up and walk back out of the cemetery ending the game. The game is available in a free version as well as a payed version, with the only difference being that in the bought version there is a chance of the old lady passing away during gameplay.’
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Gerhard Nordström Untitled, 2014
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Allan Sekula Grave of Karl Marx and His Family. Highgate Cemetery, London, July 1989, 1992
‘Across four decades the photographic and written practice of Allan Sekula has provided an object lesson in the possibilities for an artistic commitment to labour’s cause and for the exploration of the world of late capitalism from a radical-left perspective. Turning from performance and sculpture to the camera in the early 1970s, Sekula has insisted ever since on the viability of realism and the ‘social referentiality’ of photography. While his photographic work has sought to renew the documentary tradition, Sekula’s practice as a theorist and historian of photography has been equally crucial to his search for a way beyond the habitual lapse of the discourse of documentary into either a scientistic objectivism or a romantic and expressive subjectivism.’
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Danielle Krcmar with Lisa Osborn Resting Benches, 2001
Concrete and steel
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Grave Extremely Rotten Flesh, 1992
‘Bodies rotting faces dark sent in forever fear all your flesh will rot Rotten corpse, dead in cruelty and pain to end up in this special way Extremely rotten fleshTrapped in a wooden case slaughtered at birth you died the fault of a deformed face you have to dieBodies rotting faces dark sent in forever fear all your flesh will rot Rotten corpse, dead in cruelty and pain to end up in this special way Extremely rotten flesh.’
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Marilène Oliver I Know You Inside Out, 2001
‘Fascinated by the possibility of downloading a man from the Internet Marilène Oliver created an intriguing installation from multi transverse sections of a body laid onto multiple layers of acrylic. The effect is a life size 3D shadow hovering, trapped and immortalised. Oliver’s installation created a stir when it was announced that the model had given his body for medical research before being executed in the USA.’
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Lead Pencil Studio Oregon State Hospital Cremains Memorial, 2014
‘For most of the 20th century, it turns out, Salem’s Oregon State Hospital (OSH) was used as a dumping ground for unclaimed human remains from at least five area health facilities, in addition to its own crop. A bunch of these people had died at the Oregon Asylum for the Insane and were first buried in the asylum cemetery, until 1913–1914, when the asylum decided it needed the land, exhumed the bodies, and shipped them over to the state hospital for cremation. Most of their headstones were chucked on a nearby hillside. Once the bodies were burned, they were packed in copper canisters and stashed in a basement for about 60 years.
‘In 1976, OSH decided to move the whole inventory—the cremains of more than 5,000 people—to a designated memorial vault. But the vault leaked and the canisters got oxidized and damaged, many of them afflicted by galvanic corrosion—that powdery white/turquoise zinc buildup that you sometimes see on car battery terminals. Each can ended up with a unique corrosive bloom, depending on how much water had come in contact with it and also the distinct chemical composition of the cremains inside. The bodies have since been repackaged and rehomed in the hospital’s “Cremains Room,” and in 2007, the hospital began publishing the names of the deceased (you can look at the list here in hopes of persuading locals to come pick up their ancestors. There are still about 3,500 of them sitting there.’
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Jaume Plensa Anna, 2019
‘‘Anna’ is the name of a new artwork by Catalan sculptor Jaume Plensa in the restored atrium of the basilica of Montserrat, in the famous abbey on Montserrat mountain. A four-meter high head of a dead girl with closed eyes, ‘Anna’ is made of mesh, making the sculpture transparent, to expose the relationship between the interior and exterior.’
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Sophie Calle Untitled (The Graves), 1991
‘In this series, she takes large-scale black and white photographs of graves and their markers, revealing the names and inscriptions. With an extraordinary comfort level, Calle sits in cemeteries for hours at a time (once a year at her own pre-purchased tomb), claiming that they are one of her “personal obsessions.” In a sense resurrecting the dead, Calle’s works speak more about the absence of the figures than their actual presence, creating infinite possibilities for their lives and deaths.’
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Tadashi Tonoshiki Opposing Grave Marker, 1991
‘I had the opportunity to meet and listen to the late Tadashi Tonoshiki only once, when I was still in my twenties. I cannot recall exactly when this meeting took place, but it was in Tokyo, and so Tonoshiki had probably come to the capital in connection with an exhibition. However, at the large-scale group exhibition held at Art Tower Mito in April the following year, “Mito Annual ’91: Beyond the Manifesto,” where Tonoshiki presented Opposing Grave Marker, we were prevented from meeting again due to his poor health, and less than a year later, in February 1992, he passed way at the age of just 50. The Tonoshiki in my memory looked the picture of good health and was full of youthful vitality, which makes me think that I was witnessing the final combustion of the life of Tonoshiki, who already knew he was about to die.’
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Steve Niles, Alison Sampson Winnebago Graveyard, 2017
‘An American family’s vacation turns into a nightmare when they stop in a small California town. Before they know what’s happening, they’ve become the targets of the town’s citizens who just happen to be Satanists.’
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Brace Yourself Games Crypt of the NecroDancer, 2015
‘Crypt of the NecroDancer is an award winning hardcore roguelike rhythm game. Move on the beat to navigate an ever changing dungeon while battling dancing skeletons, zombies, dragons, and more. Groove to the epic Danny Baranowsky soundtrack, or select songs from your own MP3 collection!’
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Unknown The mysterious coffins of Arthur’s Seat, ?
‘In 1836, five boys were hunting rabbits on the north-eastern slopes of Arthur’s Seat, the main peak in the group of hills in the center of Edinburgh. In a small cave in the crags of the hill they stumbled across seventeen miniature coffins carved in pine and decorated with tinned iron. Carefully arranged in a three-tiered stack, each coffin contained a small wooden figure with painted black boots and individually crafted clothing. What are these objects? Who made them and who buried them? And why? To this day, no one has any real idea.
‘At the time of their discovery, some speculated that they were implements of witchcraft; others suggested they were charms used by sailors to ward off death or even mimic burials for those lost at sea. There is also a provocative theory that the little figures are tributes to the seventeen victims of famed Edinburgh serial killers Burke and Hare, as the figures were found just seven years after Burke’s execution. However, all of the figures are dressed in male attire, whereas twelve of Burke and Hare’s victims were female.’
*
p.s. Hey. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. I’m glad my blog can do its part. I’m in the ‘He never existed’ camp myself. ** Dominik, Hi, D-ster! Sounds like you were in my similarly lonely boat. But we made it through. Oh, uh, one of the projects is something I had to say yes to for reasons I can’t explain, and the other is very interesting — a text responding to a new film by a filmmaker I greatly admire — but I said yes because I felt honored rather than because I have the slightest idea of what to write. But I’ll figure it out. I’m just in a bit of an uninspired moment. Zac and Michael Salerno and OB DeAlessi and I shared Buche last week before they left for their respective holidays, but I never got one for the Day itself. Oh, well. My Xmas culinary celebration was breaking my vegan diet long enough to eat a frozen/microwaved cheese pizza, ha ha. I could sure use those cookies, thanks. Now that the stores are open again post-Xmas, maybe I’ll find some. Love doing an eternal pirouette without breaking a sweat, Dennis. ** David S. Estornell, Hi. Well, yes, we should meet. We’re in the same city, after all. When is good? ** Jack Skelley, My utmost pleasure, Jack. Aw, thanks, pal. Gigantic ditto housed within a huffing-puffing fog machine and festooned with 8 billion twinkling lights. ** Bill, There’s something to be said about spending a Xmas at home doing precisely what one always does. Good for the ego or something. ** Misanthrope, Good memory. Those convos sound awfully warm and fuzzy. Me, I did a lot of quickie texting and messaging with far-flung buds, but that was tasty enough. That is a nice haul. Especially the chocolate covered cookies. I tend to groan at singers ‘with nice voices’ but I’ll give her a quick test just to know what’s what. I’m sure you enjoyed that upcoming feast. Mashed potatoes are the cum of the gods. Big weekend to you, maestro. ** schlix, Hey, Uli. What a scary year to have to deal with health problems. I’m really glad you’ve passed out the other side. Interesting how being relaxed has become a higher echelon goal this year. My evening was nothing, the usual almost entirely. I think, yeah, the German ‘Sluts’ got delayed because of the whole Covid thing and how that fucked up bookstores/sales/etc. I’m glad you think the German translations are good. I’ve heard that. Luckily, ‘The Sluts’ should be a pretty easy one to re-language. Have a swell weekend, my friend. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, B. The more you know about Jonathan Brandis, the blacker the comedy, which I like, of course, being a literary sneakiness fan. What a lovely family gathering. And chilly looking. Digging your Xmas haul. I need to get that Szasz. Enjoy the diving. ** Sypha, Hi, James. And, sure enough, someone on Facebook was triggered again by that post yesterday, although via private message, and I’m now unfriended. Hooray! ** politekid, Howdy, Oscar. Well, your diversion got delayed until this weekend due to a competing diversion of no doubt infinitely less value. But it’s cued up. Literally. Wow, Douglas Coupland … I haven’t thought about him or even heard about him in years. So he’s still doing his thing. That’s cool. I can bet his books have a nice period capsule kind of funness. I did nothing of note or of much fun. Shared hi’s and greetings with friends via technology’s miracle. That was fun, actually. The cool thing about Paris is that it’s so inherently beautiful physically and stuff that it’s even kind of great when nothing is going on. That might just be me. And I am kind of dying to get out of here for at least a short stint. So never mind. NYE: I don’t like alcohol, I don’t like parties, I don’t do drugs anymore, I go to bed early … add that up and NYE is the opposite of a highlight for me. Okay, I now have ‘_The Complete BRUTE!_ ‘ at my list’s top. There are some great comix/graphic novel stores here that I never take advantage of because I don’t know shit about that stuff so it’s kind of blinding to be in them, but now that I have a goal I’ll go. Thank you. I think I’m going to go give another long look at the Paris Xmas decoration makeover this weekend before it’s just a sad reminder of things past. Other than that and hearing your thing, it’s a crapshoot weekend, which I like in theory. An excellent couple of whatever happens to you, man. ** Steve Erickson, Hi. No, not seen them live. I was going to see Tumor live for the first time in March at a festival here, but the quarantine killed everything. We’re pretty deserted here too, and, yeah, it’s pleasant, but cold, very cold. We should make that film. The former-ARTE TV project turned hopeful Vienne-helmed feature film that Zac and I co-wrote is a pretty black comedy, but not queer except in the broadest interpretation, i.e. written by queers. ** Ian, And a very Merry Xmas to you too, Ian, albeit a bit late. Thank you, both for saying that and for contributing your own special lustre to this place. Have a very warm weekend. ** Brian O’Connell, Happy post-Xmas to you, Brian. Oh, wow, nice of whoever to give you my things and, in the Bresson case, my beloved thing. I hope they earn the time you spend in their regards. Curious what you’ll think of the Bresson, naturally. Your appreciations are most welcome, and I agree with them, of course. Hm, okay, well, I’ll … try to see if I can find something percolative in Taylor Swift. She just sounds like highly polished, canny mediocrity to me so far. But never say never. I have seen ‘Neon Genesis: Evangelion’, but not for a while, and I like it a lot. Enjoy what I assume will be lingering Xmas-based loveliness-centric weekend! ** James, Merry day-after-Xmas to you! Oh, wow, thanks about the Twitter thing. I’ll go look. For some reason there’s something fucked up about Twitter — I don’t know if it’s a France thing or my computer — but it’s been taking forever to load recently. But that won’t stop me. Yeah, ‘Sad Story’ is by me. It was going to be in my book ‘Ugly Man’, but Harper Perennial didn’t want to print the images, and it doesn’t work without them. Weekend of non-stop excellence. ** h (now j), Hi, pal. Miss you too. Xmas was a big fat zero for me, so taking it off would have been sheer laziness. I’m good. No snow at all here so far. Not even a flake. Grr. Happy happy! ** Okay. Maybe you’d like to spend part of your weekend wandering around in my cemetery? See you on Monday.
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