Death: A Self Portrait.

The Richard Harris Collection at the Wellcome Collection.

Thursday 15 November 2012 - Sunday 24 February 2013. 

A fascinating collection of memento mori, with over 300 exhibits displayed through five themed rooms, featuring works as diverse as a Renaissance painting, an etching by Goya, anatomical illustrations and papier-mâché sculptures.  It also boasts the stunning War Collection by Otto Dix and one of the earliest known versions of the Danse Macabre from the Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493, alongside a range of contemporary artworks inspired by death.    

The collection contains items inspired by and celebrating death, amassed from countries across the globe over a 12 year period by Richard Harris, a former antiques dealer from Chicago.  The collection provides a unique opportunity to take a look at the many perspectives surrounding this eternally elusive subject. 

The venue also hosts a well-stocked book store selling the accompanying book by Richard Harris, and also offering a good selection of books and items in keeping with the theme.

The exhibition, which is free to enter, runs until 24 February 2013, and is well worth a visit.

For more information, see www.wellcomecollection.org/death.

 

The Piety Museum of Hungary

Piety Musem of Hungary

A fascinating find in Budapest is the Piety Museum of Hungary, a museum which illuminates the Hungarian way of death throughout recent history as well as hosting exhibitions on death around the world.

The museum hosts five exhibition rooms which display such diverse items as folk art and ethnographical material, mourning clothes and regalia, historical pictures and artefacts including death masks, coffins and urns, and three magnificent vintage hearses.

Established in 1991, the museum is one of a kind in Hungary - if not the world - and is well worth a visit not only for the Hungarian traditions, but also for the multicultural displays, ranging from pictures of Tibetan sky burial to Mexican Day of the Dead altars. 





Kerepesi Cemetery

It is located in the grounds of Kerepesi Cemetery, Budapest, which is one of the oldest Christian cemeteries in Hungary and one of the largest open-air statue parks in Europe. It is beautifully preserved and hosts stunning arcades, tombs and monuments, and protected green areas with interesting wildlife.

If you’re going that way or are interested, you can find more information here. on the National Graveyard Site.

London Funeral Exhibition 2012

This weekend, Carfax Studios spent a fun day out at the London Funeral Exhibition, held in the beautiful Chiltern Woodland Burial Site.

It was a great event, raising awareness about the importance of death and dying in modern society, and about the options available for end of life care and after death.

With exhibitors including The Natural Death Centre, Dying Matters, the Good Funeral Guide and The Bereavement Register, there were an interesting array of people to discuss the subject with.

There was a fantastic exhibition of coffins and urns, including willow coffins, cardboard coffins, and dissolvable and biodegradable urns. Also on display was a motorcycle hearse, a carriage hearse and a willow coffin on a pull-along cart.

In addition to stands there was plenty of entertainment - talks, storytelling, music from the splendid duo Nicetoy, puppet shows, basket weaving displays, and a barbeque (despite the rain!), and it certainly made for an interesting day out.
After spending time chatting with the exhibitors we walked around the burial site; it was such a peaceful space, with graves discreetly and beautifully marked, none of the gloom of traditional English cemeteries, but a nice space where nature can get on and do her thing undisturbed. And, crucially, the burial ground presents an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional burial or cremation.                        

Resomation

If you like the idea of an environmentally friendly funeral, another innovative idea alongside promession is Resomation.

Resomation is the dissolution of the body by a water and alkali based method called alkaline hydrolysis. The body is placed in a stainless steel vessel containing water, known as a Resomator, and potassium hydroxide, heat and pressure are applied. Within three hours, the body tissue is dissolved into a water like sterile liquid , and the soft bones are crushed in a processor, the same machine used to crush the bone remains in cremation . The liquid is recycled back into the water cycle, and the pure white ash may be handed back to the family as in traditional cremation.

Resomation was developed as an eco-friendly alternative to cremation and burial, and according to Glasgow-based company Resomation Ltd, it uses only a seventh of the energy used for cremation, produces no airborne mercury emissions, and the substitution of Resomation for cremation reduces a funeral’s emissions of greenhouse gases by approximately 35%.
Sandy Sullivan, Managing Director of Resomation Ltd, says: 'It is another choice that will appeal especially to those who wish to express their environmental awareness and concerns in a positive way in death as they did in their life.'

Resomation is not currently available in the UK, although the government has been approached about regulation and Resomation Ltd are currently awaiting the outcome. 

The process has, however, been regulated in some states in the US, and is available as an option in Florida.

Sandy Sullivan, Founder and Managing Director of Resomation Ltd, alongside the Resomator. 

The Archbishop of York on the Importance of Discussing Death

Death is such an important issue, and something that every person will experience – as such, it is a vital part of life but still remains a taboo subject.

An article was printed in the Telegraph today in which the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, warns that the last taboo could be denying us all a 'good death'.

The article quotes some statistics which are quite incredible:

·        Only one in three people in Britain has ever discussed their wishes for the end of their life with a loved-one.

·        Eight out of 10 people admit being uncomfortable speaking openly about the prospect of our own death, even though a third think about it privately as often as once a week.
·        More than a third of GPs polled had never initiated a discussion with a patient about their end-of-life choices and in their own lives only 35 per cent had spoken to someone about their own wishes. [1]

Read the full article here.

It is amazing to think that for something that will affect each and every one of us, so few people discuss it, even when faced with it.  It can be a traumatic experience when people that we love die, and many people don’t like to confront the idea of their own death, but through discussing and confronting the subject of death, we believe that people can lead a fuller life.

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[1] Quotes from Telegraph. (2012). The last taboo is denying us all a 'good death', warns Archbishop of York John Sentamu.  Available at - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/9262888/The-last-taboo-is-denying-us-all-a-good-death-warns-Archbishop-of-York-John-Sentamu.html.  Accessed 25.06.12.

Get used to dying
before death arrives,
for the dead can only live
and the living can only die.

- Old Mexican refrain.

Dying in the Modern World

We are born surrounded by machines; we die surrounded by machines. Where once we were surrounded by family and underwent important rites of passage at these two most significant stages in our lives, in the modern world we often are born and die in cold, unfeeling sterility.

Medical science has done much to keep death and disease at bay, prolonging our lives, but in our search to defy death it seems we are distancing ourselves from our humanity.

When a person dies in a familiar environment surrounded by loved ones, there is the opportunity for a period of adjustment and realisation of what is happening, of the process of dying. When one dies surrounded by doctors - strangers - and machines, the body sometimes being bullied into retaining life, this must surely be more traumatic for the person dying, and for the family.  The situation and the people are unfamiliar, unconnected to the person who is dying.

As modern medical science has advanced, so we have become more removed from the family and important rites of passage during the most important transitional periods of our lives.

The King's Fund, which  seeks to understand how the health system in England can be improved, quotes an NHS Confederation survey which suggests that 56 % of terminally ill people would prefer to die at home, but only 18% achieve this, with 58% dying in hospitals, 17% in care homes and 4 percent in hospices.

This is a highly significant finding which demonstrates our society’s fundamental inability to manage how we die and to allow people to die as they choose.

According to findings quoted by The King’s Fund:

‘The pattern of death in the UK has changed dramatically in the past 100 years. At the end of the 19th century 85 per cent of people died at home, the majority from acute infections. Today 58 per cent of the 500,000 deaths each year occur in hospital, mainly from chronic long-term conditions. Long-term projections by Gomes and Higginson suggest that if current trends continue unchecked, fewer than one in 10 people will die at home by 2030 while deaths in institutions will rise by over 20 per cent.’[1]

What this means for the number of people wishing to die at home, is that whilst medical care is progressing, we as humans are being given less choice in how we live and how we die.  If we are subjected to dying in a situation that we do not choose or want, then our death is not likely to be a happy or comfortable one.

There are of course a great many people and organisations dedicated to caring for the dying and fighting for our rights to die how we will; amongst these are such organisations as Dignity in Dying.  Like all aspects of death, the subject of dying is international, political and often controversial.  We will examine this in greater depth  in the future.

Fundamentally, our rights in the important rite of passage of death have to a great degree been taken from us.

Our choices of what happens to our body when we die, however, are increasingly expanding, and next we will be looking at some of the more inventive ways people are finding to deal with our mortal remains.
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[1] The Kings Fund. (2011). End-of-life care. Available at http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/topics/endoflife_care/.  Accessed 20.03.12

Death and Dying

Death, the one true certainty in life, still remains the ultimate mystery.

Our views of death and what ‘happens’ to us when we die, along with how we treat our dead, vary vastly across cultures and from person to person.  Some treat death with solemnity whilst others view death as a celebration of life and the beginning of our next big adventure.

Despite claims of ghosts and reports of near death experiences, there is no scientific proof for what happens to us after death.  Many of our answers come from the state or religion: nearly all cultures and major belief systems propound in some form a notion of life after death.

Many Christians for example, believe in an afterlife, heaven and hell and even resurrection – they believe Christ himself rose from the dead.  Other religions like Hinduism and Buddhism believe in reincarnation, a cycle of birth, death and rebirth, until through various means one becomes liberated.  Some traditions continue to talk to and honour their dead long after they are gone.   

All of these beliefs inform the way that people choose to live, to die, and to deal with their dead.

Ever-changing social and environmental factors influence our beliefs and attitudes towards death.  This directly affects the way we treat our dead and dying, and, more importantly, the way we live our lives.

This blog sets out to explore the various perceptions of death throughout time and across the globe.