post mortem photography is the practice of taking photographs of the dead as if they were alive. Like a puppet the photographed corpse is positioned and held up to give the impression they are still living. Many such photographs can be found of children who passed before being able to experience life to it’s fullest. The result is often eerie. More often than not these photographs were taken in the Victorian age but i would be interested to create a modern take, using spent and used inanimate objects to create still lifes inspired by post mortem photography.

• 

Post mortem photography is a bid to cling to past memories of loved ones when they were still alive. This need to have photographic evidence of more animated times shows us humans deep set fear of death, a fear that comes from the unknown. No one knows for certain what happens to us when we die, all we know is that we no longer inhabit the corpse we leave behind. This is were i see a link to my theme memento mori. Memento mori is latin for remember you must die. This fear of death we can see prevelant in the human psyche does not have to be a bad thing. As to be aware of ones own mortality in everyday life could have the effect of pushing one to live each day to the fullest.

Much like how post mortem photography involves propping up a corpse, previously i have experimented with propping up banana peels with wire.

• 

• 

• 

In this experimentation, the use of a plastic sheet box around the banana peel offers further links to death and my theme Memento Mori through ties to the plastic covers used on crime sites to cover dead bodies.

Below is an exploration of how I could create sculptures that will change over time. The goal is for the organic matter to mould and disintegrate and slowly fall off of the wire. I am interested in how i could further explore this, creating something visually appealing that will slowly wilt and die.

• 

• 

I’m interested by the technique used here and feel it would work well with different imagery, I will experiment with this technique using a wire drawing.

Here I have used roses and the leaves from the rose bush with the same technique as before but i have drawn a skull using wire. It was difficult to get the leaves to be spread out evenly along the wire and the weight of the roses deformed the original image. Although the result is not as intended I am satisfied with the combination symbolism for memento Mori. The wire inspired by the ‘scaffolding’ used in post mortem photography and the roses and skull haven’t direct links to death. The piece will also deteriorate over time, giving the work a life span, a further link to my theme.

I will continue the symbolism I have used in this work into further experimentation, I believe the work has successful elements but lacks refinement. In future i would like to create something more solid, maybe using a canvas as a base and then using wire and flowers/petals to create my imagery. This I hope will create a more final looking piece. I will also explore textures to cover the canvas surface that will invoke my theme further.