Art and Death

huunuu Online Exhibition

I discovered this online exhibition via my cousin, Emily Tull, on her Instagram page, an exhibition she was involved in called 'Art and Death' by huunnu, which runs until 28th November 2020 https://huunuu.com/art-and-death/ .

The artists involved have interpreted the subject of death, dying, bereavement and legacy. The work involved a wide range of mediums and formats, all very personal to the artist themselves and many relating their work to the current COVID-19 global pandemic, and how it has effected them, some losing loved ones during the last year. A few of artists that stood out to me that may inform my current project are; Valya Korabelnikova, Hannah Cushion and Sarah Capotu. I will be looking into their work further, but for me these three artists showed work that resonated with my own in some form.

Hannah Cushion looks into the issues of preservation and archiving, using traditional methods such as wax. She is interested in how we store items at home, how long we keep them and why. In this exhibition, Cushion's work depicted images of her sculptures of drawers, with various items inside.

Valya Korabelnikova's 'In Conversations With Spirits' project, uses photography to explore the relationship between life and death. One of her images involves a women laying in water, on her back looking up, reminiscent of Sir John Everett Millais's, Ophelia, 1851-2 and Tom Hunter's The Way Home, Life and Death in Hackney Series, 1999-2001.

Figure 1: Sir John Everett Millais, Ophelia, 1851-2

Figure 2: Tom Hunter, The Way Home, 2009

Sarah Capotu image Sammy Cat's 2nd Burial, was listed as the most graphic image. it depicts the skeleton of her cat, Sammy, who died 10 years previous after being unearthed by a relative who is an archaeologist. The image I thought, is beautiful, with the skeleton surrounded by flowers before reburial to contribute to the circle of life.

The three artist websites are listed within the bibliography.

Websites:

huunuu. 2020. [online] Available at: <https://huunuu.com/about-us/> [Accessed 28 November 2020].

huunuu. 2020. Art And Death. [online] Available at: <https://huunuu.com/art-and-death/> [Accessed 27 November 2020].

Caputo, S., 2020. Sarah Caputo. [online] Sarahcaputo.co.uk. Available at: <https://www.sarahcaputo.co.uk/> [Accessed 27 November 2020].

Cushion, H., 2020. [online] Hannahcushion.com. Available at: <https://www.hannahcushion.com/> [Accessed 27 November 2020].

Korabelnikova, V., 2020. [online] Vkyshat.com. Available at: <https://www.vkyshat.com/> [Accessed 27 November 2020].

Images:

Tomhunter.org. n.d. Life And Death In Hackney, 1999-2001 | Tom Hunter. [online] Available at: <http://www.tomhunter.org/life-and-death-in-hackney/> [Accessed 28 November 2020].

Tate. n.d. The Story Of Ophelia – Look Closer | Tate. [online] Available at: <https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/millais-ophelia-n01506/story-ophelia> [Accessed 28 November 2020].

Figures:

Figure 1: Sir John Everett Millais, Ophelia, 1851-2

Figure 2: Tom Hunter, The Way Home, 2009