The photo to the left is a piece I did for school entitled: La Muerte Americana, which translates to "American Death." The goal of the project was to depict something that we cared about through a collage of images. Mixing my drawing skills with some images I found online, I created this.
There are many images on the canvas, so let me break it down for you:
-The flowers are symbols of traditional funerals as well as the romanticism we sometimes associate with death.
-The clock represents our time or lack thereof.
-The hand with ashes falling out are to mean the rising popularity of cremation in the U.S.
-The ocean symbolizes the both new and old tradition of pouring remains into a body of water in which that person held sentimental value to.
-The swans, birds and snakes symbolize the fear and superstition the American people have surrounding the dead.
-And the meadow at the bottom (which I wish I had aligned and cropped better) is representing religion and heaven which is a very important aspect of death culture in America.
Death culture in America, and even around the world, has fascinated me deeply for the past couple of years. There are so many layers to death that people fail to recognize because it is deemed as "creepy," or "morbid." But why should my interest be creepy?
My interest in death and all things surrounding the topic is only creepy in America because we have deemed it a taboo topic. Other countries have allowed themselves to ponder and consider death. In Caitlin Doughty's book, From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death, she talks about how other cultures in the world react to death. Traveling to multiple parts of the world, Doughty experiences and learns the death practices taking place which seem quite stark to ours. In the book, I dived into just how afraid we are of death.
Our culture likes to act very "hush hush" when it comes to the topic of our passing. We never talk about it until old granny Petunia kicks the bucket. But we can never just go up to our family and say, "hey, if I die, this is what I would like." I know saying that to my mom upsets her and it is understandable, but shouldn't I be able to dictate what I want if I should have an untimely passing?
Without an open conversation about death, we disregard a lot of topics. We remain uneducated, for one thing. After digging slightly, I was able to learn more about my rights as a corpse and what rights I have over a loved one's corpse. I was able to expand my horizon on the choices I have for my body when I am gone.
We also continue to allow for a stigma to surround dead bodies. Dead bodies are unsanitary. They scare us. But they are not. Most dead bodies are quite hygienic for the most part.
We forget history when we shun the topic of the dead. Corpses play a major part in our world history. From historical deaths to art history, there is much to learn from the deceased.
I just wish our culture was more open about the topic of death. We don't have to trivialize it like it's the weather- but death is everywhere and we can't escape it. This is not me being insensitive to those who have lost loved ones. This is me saying that as a culture, once our loved ones are dead, we tend to close the casket and forget about it so to speak.
The conversation should happen. The stigma should be weakened. We should be able to learn about death respectfully and thoughtfully.
(Feel free to check out Caitlin Doughty's amazing series on YouTube, Ask a Mortician as well as her podcast Death in the Afternoon)
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