The ultimate failure in life is the failure of life itself. Death is celebrated across the whole range of media at Wellcome’s winter exhibition “Death: A Self-Portrait”
- “The exhibition finds beginnings in ends with Commemoration, which follows global and historical rituals surrounding death, burial and mourning. From pre-Colombian Aztec vessels to American photographs of individuals posing with macabre props, they all express a very human desire to connect with our ancestors, to sanctify the body and to feel intimately connected to people beyond death.”
The exhibit spans 5 rooms which feature distinct aspects of Death and its artistic expression…
- Contemplating Death explores the pressing of our own mortality upon us.
- Dance of Death focuses on the levelling universality of death
- Violent Death [shows] compelling works of chaos, brutality and, more troublingly, aesthetic beauty.
- Eros and Thanatos presents works that navigate our strange attraction to death, sexuality and pain.
- Commemoration…follows global and historical rituals surrounding death, burial and mourning.
NBC News commented, “The Wellcome Foundation’s exhibit “Death: A Self Portrait” in London is a lesson in Carpe Diem, and encourages the living to make the most of every moment.”
