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Jordan Baseman Deadness 2013
Matts Gallery
Deadness (Still 139a), 2013
The Deadness exhibition comprises three works, Deadness (2013) multiple 35 mm slide projections with sound, a film, The Last Walk (2011) and a series of photogrpaphic works, February 09 2013 (2013) I am commenting on Deadness and The Last Walk (2011)
On entering the main gallery space (which is divided into two areas) and there is a certain initial claustrophobia and disorientation until you have acclimatised to the the low light levels.
Deadness (2013) is an installation in which multiple projections of black and white and colour stills of deceased persons is accompanied by the voice of sociologist Dr John Troyer, whose father was a funeral director in the US. The layout of the gallery, the position of the projectors and the timing of the slides means that there are regular instances where the voice is audible but the projections are in an unseen part of the gallery. This provides an intrigue and a secrecy which I feel is a pertinent metaphor for the western attiude to death, funearal practices and the general ignorance about what actually happens to our relatives when their bodies are released to funeral directors in preparation for funerals.
The deceased come from a range of ethnic backgrounds, genders and ages, many are in open coffins, having been prepared for a visit by friends/ family who have come to view the bodies and to say their final farewells to their loved one.
Troyer speaks about the embalming process, (which he grew up seeing his father do before becoming academically engaged with the subject, and discusses the origins of the process and some of the socio-political implications that have arisen from this funeral practice.
Some of the points raised that are of particular interest to me are:
Origins:
Early photographers recorded the dead bodies and the long exposures required was not being a problem as the people did not move!
Emvbalming was used to preserve the un-identified bodies which then became a spectacle whereby people would visit and view the bodies as a form of entertainment
Artifice:
Cosmetology and make up are used which may result in the person's body being be re-made into the person they may never have been , relatives may not recognise that person as the one they knew
The person may look better in death than in life
Political:Gender Politics
HIV AIDS
The 'deviant' body diseased is made to look more 'normal'
The diseased body was a product of 'deviant' behaviours
A stigmatisation of the gay community and a fear of the 'deviant diseased' bodies of sufferers and possible contamination to funeral directors when handling the bodies in the aftermath of the HIV Aids epidemic in US .
Fear of contamination from a new and unknown disease
Funeral Directors not prepared for dealing with relatives who were not aware their loved one was gay asnd were 'not used to negotiating on the fly'
The implications of who had legal responsibility for that body, legal claim ie. the family vs. kinship claim ie. the lover or friends
Deadness
Matts Gallery
29 May-21 July 2013
Sharon McElroy