Looking at:

Shrines – Relics – The Art of Mourning (Victorian Era)

Questioning the durability of the heart and how to preserve it/keep a heart beating:

1. IDEA OF CREATING AN INTERACTIVE SHRINE, THOUGHTS OF HOLOGRAMS
2. DAMIEN HIRST: SHARK – THOUGHTS OF PRESERVATION

”The Physical impossibility of death in the mind of someone living”.

3. HEART MEMBRANE: ELECTRICITY KEEPS THE HEART BEATING – THOUGHTS OF PLASMA BALL (ILLUSION OF ELECTRICITY)

PHOTOSHOP EXPERIMENTATION ONLY TO PLAY AROUND WITH THE THOUGHT OF LINK BETWEEN INSIDE AND OUTSIDE:

 

 

MY NEXT STEP WAS DOING RESEARCH ON ARTISTS AND ART RELATED PROJECTS THAT HAD BEEN DONE AROUND THE SUBJECT OF MOURNING OR AFTERLIFE, PROTECTION OF THE SOUL, HOLDING THE SOUL, ETC…

I found this article about a Dutch designer that created a ‘memory box’ that contains a dildo that stores the ashes of a deceased partner. I found this article super interesting because it showed how this designer was dealing with almost the exact same concept as the one I was working on.

Here’s the article:

http://www.dezeen.com/2015/04/26/21-grams-sex-toy-contains-ashes-of-dead-partner-mark-sturkenboom/

 

Moving on to the second part of the brief it is time to evaluate where I’m in my thoughts and where my projects situates itself.

At this point I am grouping all the parts of the different research that I have done that most links to what I want to say and what I am interested in. Here goes:

• PHYSICAL APPEARANCE:  How relevant is it in life and death?  People have sex changes and operations to change the way they look like, so the way they look doesn’t necessary say much of who they really are.
• REMEMBERING THE PERSON: Heart – Memories – Something that hold the soul
• SCENT: Scent is completely unique to each one of us. How we identify people by smells; How it is undeniable, we recognise it immediately and brings back the memory of them as a whole, not just one memory. COLLECT THEIR SCENT?
• AMULETS: Not really of use here as they were used as protection against evil spell.
• CELEBRATION/DEDICATION TO THE DECEASED: Propose a new ceremony? Coffins from Ghana: no protection of the soul (in coffin) but a simple projection of who the deceased was. In a way that is more celebratory and jovial (transmits life/lively) But an iconic image (usually of their job) which can’t fully represent a person. Egyptian mummification: Protection of the soul but not a true projection of the character as it is only represented by a portrait – (people don’t always identity themselves with their physical appearances).
• CORSETS MADE OF FLESH: Create something that HOLDS, GRASPS, CONTAINS the should, tightly, tenderly? Not trapped just to hold the soul but something that acts as an affectionate reminder.
• THE DEAD MAY NOT CARE WHAT HAPPENS TO THEM, BUT THE LIVING DO.
• IS DEATH THE FATAL SHATTERING OF PERSONAL EXISTENCE?

 

Objectif is to create something that contains + protects the soul and acts as a reminder of the person (it’s personality).

–

_SPECULATION + RESEARCH_

”You should now be able to talk at length about each of your chosen artefacts. The next task asks you to consider an unknown relationship between the two objects you have chosen.”

Your initial research may have uncovered a pattern, a shared quality, subtle genealogies or opposed politics. Take this further and imagine, propose and test a new future that positions the two objects side by side.

_GIVE ME SOME MORE_

 

RESEARCH THROUGH EXTERIOR SOURCES ON:

WHERE DOES OUR PERSONALITY LIE?

ANATOMY IN ART

DIFFERENT WAYS OF APPROACHING DEATH AND DEPARTING WITH THE DECEASED : Ghana, a much more positive way of seeing death or at least the burial, by trying to transmit the personality of the deceased through the aspect of the coffin.

 

I loved visiting the Ancient Egypt rooms of The British Museum. I have always been extremely interested in ancient Egypt since very young. The first job I remember wanting to have was archaeologist specialised in Ancient Egypt. And I was 6.

I immediately found that what I was finding out in these rooms matched perfectly with the Hungarian Museums and all the thoughts and questions I had from it.

(keep scrolling after the images)

Here  I was really looking at the rituals, at what was most important to them when it came to taking care of their deceased. It was important to me because this is a society that had a great dedication to the deceased, as if they were still alive. So the thoughts, concepts and ideas are the following:

 

MASK + AMULETS: as things that hold the soul of the deceased and protect it from the Gods.

PORTRAITS + MASKS: Not stealing the personality from the deceased simply because they are dead. They still are who they used to be.

AFTERLIFE: belief that death was not the end of our lives, belief of a rebirth. AND ETERNAL LIFE.

FUNERARY SCENES/DIETIES

HEART: The one organ which they protect the most and which holds our intelligence and our memory.

 

 

 

EVOLUTION – FROM SKULL TO FACE – FROM FACE TO PERSONALITY

NATIVE AMERICAN INDIANS – DEATH RITUALS – THE BELIEF THAT THE SPIRIT OF THE PERSON NEVER DIES – GUIDING THE SPIRIT – LIFE AFTER DEATH

SHRUNKEN HEADS – KEEPING SOMETHING OF THE DECEASED – PART OF THEM

ANTHROPOLOGY – THE STUDY OF HUMANITY – DEATH RITUALS AND BELIEFS AROUND THE WORLD – ORIGINS – HUMAN RESPONSES TO DEATH

 

 

_ABSOLUTELY LOVED THE HUNGARIAN MUSEUM_

THOUGHTS/CONCEPTS/IDEAS:

What do we become once we die? Are we just a body? Do we only just decay?

How much does our anatomy count for who we become in life?  (i.e if you have highly developed muscles, do you become an athlete?)

When and where does the outside link with the inside? Body and soul? Anatomy and personality?

What part of us best represents who we are? In life and in death.