Nature Strikes Back
Death looking into the window
of one dying.
Jaroslav Panuška - 1900
ELEGY: AN OPEN PROJECT ABOUT DEATH AND DYING
Life's only certainty is its end. The manner of that end is unknown but the universal consensus is that it be quick, peaceful and painless.
Such a luxury does not correspond to the facts of human ageing and prolonging life medically, as an end in itself, is an increasingly double edged sword. Nor does it correspond to a contemporary environment where violent death as entertainment merges into 24 hour media cycles of violent death as reality.
Death defines life. The extent to which it is an abstraction is dependent mostly on where and when one’s life is located. It can also be choice as much as no choice.
This project is an entirely open platform for people to express thoughts about death and about dying. This can be in the form of video, audio, text, poetry, images, animation, playlists or a combination of these things. Each submission will be given its own page and the only stipulation is that videos do not exceed 8 minutes and playlists do not exceed 6 tracks.
This project is for anyone, not only artists. If you would like to contribute something please send an initial email with your contact details and a brief outline of your idea. New and existing work can be submitted and anonymity will be respected if desired. Submissions may not always be accepted but I am very happy to advise, collaborate and help facilitate new projects.
Send email here via LINK (or use contact form on previous page)
An historical trip through ways that artists have depicted death and dying.
Observations and reflections of young care workers in UK Nursing Homes.
Four pieces of original music about facing death and contemplating our own mortality.
On the impact of a sibling suicide.
A curated selection of poems that approach the subject of death in very different ways.
Sufism, Rumi and Death - Notes from a lecture by Ayatollah Salman Safavi.
A thoughtful piece of writing on philosophy, reality and the fear of death.
Some songs to deal with death and life with.
The seamstress who makes quilts from the clothes that loved ones have left behind.