1 Images of the Dead: Ethics and Contemporary Art Practice DRAFT Mary O Neill

Over the last few years I have presented a number of papers and lectures on images of the dead. Among others I have discussed The Morgue, a series by Andres Serrano, and Life before Death by Walter Schels and Beata Lakotta. The former, Serranos work, has invariably been met with moral/ethical outrange while the work of Schels and Lakotta have been received sympathetically. In this paper I wish to explore the extremes of response to these works and attempt to uncover the sometimes hidden or less obvious factors that contribute to the contrasts in their reception. I will argue that it is not images of the dead per se that are problematic but the far broader issues of the role of images and art in maintaining or undermining social order, the purposes for which the dead are appropriated and ideas of the good death and meaning making that are at stake. Also I will explore the possibility that the use of ethical concepts, such as informed consent and the dignity of the dead, is an avoidance of these issues rather than an engagement with them. Many of the arguments deployed in the context of the exhibition of images of the dead also appear in relation to the much older practice of the display of human remains in museums and I will draw on this debate to amplify the issues involved. I would like to begin with the glaring obvious not all deaths are the same and consequently not all dead bodies are the same. While death is a universal experience response to it is culturally determined and depends on: the cause of death; the age of the deceased and the normal age of dying within the culture; and the context of the death. Attitudes to the dead and dying shift historically as well as culturally. Philippe Aris 1981 The Hour Of Our Death is subtitled in the Vantage edition, The Classic History of Western Attitudes Towards Death Over the Last One Thousand Years. The preferred circumstance of death in the middle ages does not sound significantly different from what constitutes a good death in contemporary terms. People wanted to die in their own bed, to have an awareness of what was happening and an opportunity to say farewell to their family and friends, and to meet impending death with dignity and the minimum of drama. What this similarity highlights is the deep underlying continuity of some human reactions, despite significant social change Gorers study of death in 20th century Britain argues that it is increasingly isolated from everyday experience, minimizing the social and economic disruption caused by

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bereavement. This professionalized death was frequently referred to as the last taboo. However, since the 1950s there has been a growth in the study of death and dying, which has emerged as an interdisciplinary subject area in academia, with several journal and professional bodies devoted to this area.1 The focus of the study of death has become the ideal and practical conditions required for a good death, free from pain and discomfort, which afford the dying control over the circumstance of their death supported by the professional management of the process. Glaser and Strauss identified three trajectories of death, the lingering death, the expected and quick death and the unexpected and quick death. The works I wish to discuss represent the extremes of these trajectories the lingering, managed good death in a hospice and unexpected, sudden death as a result of violence. To elucidate some of the issues involved in public perceptions of the ethical issues involved in the display of the dead and images of the dead, I will explore two exhibitions that took place in Manchester in 2008. Gunther Von Hagens Body Worlds 4 exhibition took place at the Museum of Science and Industry, while at the same time the Manchester Museum (in the university) covered some of the mummies in their Egyptian display - the unwrapped mummy of Asru and a partially wrapped child mummy in order to raise issues about the ethics of showing human remains. Both exhibitions had a stated educational purpose though these were framed differently. According to the Manchester Museum Blog The covering was carried out in order that the human remains be treated with respect and to keep the bodies on display in line with the Manchester Museum Remains policy. The Museum policy also refers to images of human remains and states these will always be in context with appropriate accompanying interpretation. The same consideration is also applied to casts of remains, about which the policy states; The Museum will not display and interpret casts of human remains in ways which would be inappropriate for non-cast human remains. The document also guarantees that where possible remains will be identified by name or the name of the community to which it belonged. The overwhelming majority of the comments on the museums blog and on response boards in the museum at the time of my visit requested that the mummies be uncovered. While in a very few of the responses there was references to the debate about the ethics of such a display, the majority simply stated that they wanted their mummies back. Lawrence Burns writing in the American journal of Bioethics discusses the ethical implication of the Body Worlds exhibition. He argues that providing it is for educational purposed and done with respect for the dignity of the remains it is acceptable to display human remains.2 He however, questions both the validity of the educational claims made by the exhibition organizers and the protection accorded the dignity of the human exhibits. Burns suggests that the exhibition cannot be seen as educational because of its focus on entertainment, while the bodies are treated with disrespect by Von Hagens assertion of his status of author he is named as the artists on the labels which changes their status from bodies to works. In the same journal Jane Maienschein and Richard Creath suggest that it is

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Burns limited view of what can be educational that inhibits his understanding and appreciation of the exhibition. They argue that rather than being disrespectful the posed figures demonstrate the joy of being human. Like the visitors to the Manchester Museum, the public does not seem to share Burnss reservations about the integrity of Body Worlds, which has received 28 million visitors worldwide.3 The Museum of Manchesters assertion that it is well known that there can be no ownership of human remains is similarly contradicted by one of the alleged consequences of the Body Worlds phenomenon - the increase in the trade in bodies. Universities and medical school can pay between 19,000 and 37,000 for a plastinated corpse. 4 The public response to both the covering of the mummies and the Body Worlds display suggests that the public do not have an objection in principle to the display of dead bodies. However, I would suggest that both have a common element that may account for the lack of reserve. Neither plastinated bodies nor mummies actually look very like us. They are desiccated or flayed and belong either to the blurred world where history and mythology overlap or to the world of horror which many of the visitors will be familiar with from films and computer games, though with the extra frisson of being real. The branding of the specimens referred to by Burns also belongs to this aesthetic. In contrast the images displayed in The Morgue and Life before Death do look very human and in the case of The Morgue, very dead, giving rise to different critical and public responses. Attitudes to art These critical and public responses in turn reflect the changing roles of art in society. While modernism (in the form of Impressionism, Post Impressionism and Cubism) emerged before 1914, rebelling against the staid academicism and neo-classicism of the Victorian period, the shocking mass slaughter of the First World War created an even more startling disjunction. The currently dominant form of art, which has developed into global conceptualism, had its origins in the dissatisfaction or even disgust with a culture that had led to the devastation and destruction of 1914-1918. Artists rejected notions of monumentality, permanence, authority and value as precepts of the hegemonic culture, which had led to death on a grand scale. These artist, originally based in Zurich, Berlin and Paris made art that was a critique of the established order rather than being an instrument of it. The critique was often interpreted as nihilism or mere adolescent rebellion. In many case it was a questioning of accepted norms and mores in an attempt to improve society and to find a new role for art. This struggle for is still evident in present day discussion of the function of art in society. The new art of the modern and postmodern era is subject to the same dilemma outlined by Bauman in his discussion of the ambivalence towards emancipation The outcome of rebellion against the norms, even if the rebels have not turned into beasts right away and so lost the power to judge their condition, is a perpetual agony of indecision linked to a state of

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uncertainty about the intentions and moves of others around . . .. The absence, or mere unclarity of norms anomie is the worst lot which may occur to people as they struggle to cope with life-tasks.5 Like the unwanted liberation described by Baumann it is also possible that the rebellion in art embodied in the works of Hugo Ball, Tristan Tzara and the other Dadaists liberated art for audiences that were looking for comfort and escape more than rebellion or liberation. The challenge for art in the postmodern era is to attempt to form a set of values that encompass pluralism, diversity and uncertainty. Life before Death and The Morgue could be said to reflect two separate traditions in art, the classical tradition and the postmodern. Life before Death is not only in the broader classical tradition of art but is also within the classical tradition of photographs of the dead depicting the dead as at peace. Appropriation of the dead The funeral in Uppsala Cathedral in 2002 of Fadima Sahindal, a 26 woman of Kurdish decent who was shot by her father because she persisted in a relationship of which he disapproved, exemplifies Durkheims assertion that public ritual reinforces common values and social integration. It is precisely the concept of integration that was one of the principle elements of social glue that was being preserved in the Swedish establishments response to the murder. The Dean of Uppsala cathedral described Fadima as a martyr who had given others and me courage and strength. The presence of representative of the royal family, the government, and 4,000 members of the general public emphasized the importance of perceiving Fadimas murder as a Swedish. The funeral was a climax of media attention that focused on the threat of violence that the patriarchal immigrant community posed as alien to the Swedish culture, which is based on gender equality. Not only did this case establish the need for immigrant communities to adopt the values and norms of Swedish society it reinforced the perception of that society as significantly more advanced than the societies the immigrants had left. The rhetoric in the media presented Fadimas father as a failure, geographically and temporally displaced, and his inability to integrate successfully as being the root of his violent actions. The consequence of these events was to depict honour killing as a particularly immigrant problem and therefore other, ignoring that violence against women also exist within the non-immigrant Swedish community. The ritualized repatriation of British servicemen and servicewomen at Wootton Bassett and the processions of flag draped coffins contribute a powerful image to arguments between the British government and the military concerning funding for the forces in Afghanistan. Both of these examples not only highlight the appropriation of the dead for political purposes but also the powerful need to construct a narrative of martyrdom in the face of untimely and violent death. In these circumstances rather the viewing the death as merely tragic and pointless the narrative allows the

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possibility of a post life in which the deceased still function as social being through the potential of their funerals to influence the actions of others. The construction of narrative is also fundamental in reading the works of Serrano and Schels and Lakotta. The dead can also be appropriated for financial benefit. While at Wootton Bassett the financial benefit is indirect there is also the possibility of direct financial benefit which may well be an unwritten sub-text to the objection raised on grounds of taste. There were no admission charges for Life before Death or the associated events. Manchester Museum does not charge admission. Admission prices to Serranos exhibition varied between venues; in some circumstances the exhibition was free of charge. The admission charges for Body Worlds also varied between venues; in the Museum of Science and industry the charge was between 11.50 for Adults and 8.00 for children. In both Serranos exhibition, on occasions, and Body Worlds the charging of an admission fee suggests that these works may be motivated by profit. At the Wellcome Collection and Manchester Museum the arguments are not tainted by the appearance of profiting from the exploitation of the dead. This is alluded to by Adrian Searle writing in the Guardian who concludes that Body Worlds may well educate and captivating but states The dreadful exhibition design, and the publicity machine is what taints the enterprise.6 The Morgue Andres Serrano (1950) is a Hispanic artist whose work is clearly indebted to the baroque catholic imagery and aesthetic of his childhood.7 The Morgue was first exhibited at the Paula Cooper Gallery, a prestigious commercial gallery in New York. This gallery attracts an art world audience, which would in the main have been familiar with Serranos work. These are the nameless and in some cases unwanted dead. Serrano guaranteed to protect the privacy of the deceased by not revealing the location of the morgue in which he worked and he does not show the entire faces of the most of the bodies. Apart from the fact of the photographs Serrano gives us another fact we are given the cause of death. The majority of the subjects are untimely violent deaths; they are the stuff of our nightmares, giving a new meaning to the vocabulary associated with photography of the trace, evidence and witness. The presentation of the series in an international touring exhibition was the first opportunity for the work to be seen by a wider audience. The survey exhibition Andres Serrano: Works 1983 -1993 Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia where they were shown alongside other Serrano works including the controversial Piss Christ(1987). Much of the objection to that exhibition focused on the offence caused by Piss Christ and replayed the argument originally presented by Senator Jesse Helm in his opposition to the public funding of the arts through the National Endowment of the Art (NEA). Serrano in an interview at Boston University speaking of the controversy stated, Piss Christ was politicized by politicians and the

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religious right, who made it part of their agenda, and so they incited people who might not have reacted to it otherwise.

Life before Death Life Before Death was shown at the Wellcome Collection, London in 2008.8The exhibition takes the form of large format portrait images in black and white accompanied by information about the subject age, date of first photograph the life shot and the date of death which is also the date of the second post mortem photograph. There is also some text that is made up of information taken from conversations Lokatta had with the dying person. Some of the subjects of the photographs describe their loneliness in dying "Some of the dying said, 'It's so good you're doing this - it's really important to show what it's like. No one else is listening to me, no one wants to hear or know what it's really like. The exhibition is also accompanied by a narrative of origins and describes the couples journey in the making of the work. There is a thirty-year age gap between the partners photographer Walter Schels and science journalist Beata Lakotta. This gap has resulted in the couple knowing that they will not grow old together but that it is more than likely that Walter will die first and they wishes to face this prospect without fear.9 However, Schels experiences of living in Munich during the war have left him with a horror and death and the dead. Describing the bombing of his house he says, I saw many bodies limbs torn off, heads torn off, terrible things - and I have never forgotten them. Since that day, I was always afraid of dead bodies. Even when my mother died - she was 89 years old, and I'd taken her photograph earlier that very day - I didn't want to see her after death." They visited two hospices, the Ricam Hospice, Berlin and the Leuchtfeuer Hospice, Hamburg. The words of the dying presented along side the images are often prosaic or mundane. For example Behrens says And Id just bought a new fridge freezer! If only Id known and in the apparent banality they are powerfully honest. Others speak of the loneliness of death and the isolation created by the fear of those who have not yet been force to face the reality. No one asks me how I feel Because theyre all shit scared. I find it really upsetting the way they desperately avoid the subject, talking about all sorts of other things. Dont they get it? Im going to die! Thats all I think about, every second when Im on my own.10 During this exhibition the Wellcome also hosted a number of public events that facilitated discussion and understanding of the works. The artistic, ethical, and educational benefits of the exhibition were not questioned and it forms an exemplar of how a difficult subject can be presented with sensitivity and intelligence.

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Conclusion The reading of The Morgue and Life before Death, and public and professional reactions to them, requires an understanding of the contexts in which they are displayed. The viewing of images of the dead is deemed acceptable if it is in an educational context. However evidence from the Aboriginal community points to the cultural nature of this assumption. The understanding that an image can be educational only if it is in an overtly educational context is a limiting one and does not allow for all of the informal educational experiences that individuals may encounter in their dayto-day experience. The focus on informed consent excluded the many other ethical issues raised by these works. While we may be, as Zygmunt Bauman suggests, ineluctably moral beings, there is also the possibility the ethical issues are reduced to the most obvious and easily assessable concerns. The informed consent argument is problematic because it assumes informed consent has been acquired in an educational context - and that it has not been acquired by an artist. Informed consent is in itself a problematic criterion for the judgment of these works. Individuals are often not capable of giving informed consent because the circumstances do not allow for either informed to truly be consistent with understanding or for consent to involve all the implications that the term involves. In the circumstances of Serranos photographs what would informed consent mean? Informed consent from the authorities responsible for the bodies? This was provided albeit informally by the coroner. Many of the bodies were people whose identities were unknown John and Jane Does. The individuals were in no position to provide such consent and as their deaths were sudden and violent the need to provide a living will that would have authorized photographs of their corpses was not an issue. Because Life before Death was shown in an educational context the Wellcome Collection viewers of the exhibition assumed informed consent had been given. However, formal informed consent had not been sought. This was an informal relationship between Lakotta And Schels and the people in the hospices. Informed consent is required when there is a potential of harm. It is debatable whether the individuals shown in either exhibition could have been harmed either by the taking of the photographs or the exhibiting of them. What is at stake here is the necessity of forming a narrative that is consistent with the human fear of death as outlined by Ernest Becker. In a hospice it is difficult to maintain a complete death-denying edifice and so a narrative of a good death must be constructed to ameliorate the consequence of confrontation with the reality of imminent death. Schels photographs accommodate this narrative. The subjects look peaceful and while some may have expressed the loneliness of dying in the conversation with Lakotta the images do not suggest a frightening or painful death. Serranos images on the other hand do not allow for the construction of a narrative that can either transform these deaths into heroic deaths or suggest a peaceful end of life. We are given very little information to facilitate the narrative construction with which we respond to untimely death. The evidence of Fadima Sahindals funeral and the repatriations at Wootton Bassett do not suggest

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that the appropriation of death is always or inevitably a cynical and conscious act on the part of those involved. It can be a collective gesture which attempts to accommodate otherwise meaningless and tragic loss. Lakotta, and Schels appropriated the dead for their own ends as much as Serrano, notwithstanding the pre-death agreement of their subjects. Their personal motivations do not imply a cynical act or that others cannot share in the insight that their work offers. Both artists offer accounts of their encounters with the dying and the dead which offer others the opportunity of confronting the fear of death that lies at the heart of both projects. As can be seen from responses to the Body Worlds and The Museum of Manchester mummy display, the general public, in Western cultures at least, do not, by and large, share the concerns expressed by academics, critics and museum professionals regarding the display of human remains and images of corpses. The visitor figures published by Body Worlds suggest that the spectacle of the dead can be accommodated providing it is packaged in a familiar aesthetic and the dead do not appear too human. All four exhibition example do suggest that there is a distaste from the appearance of profiting from the dead, even if on in the form of their images. The ethical concerns expressed by professionals with regard to displays of images of the dead are valid and noble but they should not automatically override the fact that as individuals we may be curious about a fearful experience we will one day encounter. In a world filled with fake images of death and in which most people dont see a corpse until their parents die we need to be cautious about moralistic judgments of this basic human curiosity. If, even at the great distance the photography entails, we are able to go a little way in our confrontation with our fear, this is not a bad thing.

Bibliography Burns, L. Gunther von Hagens BODY WORLDS: Selling Beautiful Education I The American Journal of Bioethics Volume 7 issue 4 pp 12 - 23 Bauman, Z. Liquid Modernity. Cambridge: Polity 2000 Blume, A. Andres Serrano in Bomb 43/Spring 1993 Carr, D. Death and Dying The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology. G. Ritzer. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing 2007 pp972-975 Fusco, C. Shooting the Klan: An Interview with Andres Serrano in The Citizen Artist: 20 Years of Art in the Public Arena. Frye Burnham, L. and S. Durland (eds) Critical Press 1998 Harris, P. & Kate Connolly. World Trade in bodies is linked to corpse art show. The Obsever 7/3/2002 Maienschein, J. & R. Creath. BODY WORLDS as Education and Humanism in The American Journal of Bioethics Volume 4, Issue 7 p 26-27 Policy document for the strategic development of the Museum of Manchester: Policy. The University of Manchester Senior ExecutiveTeam. http://www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/reportspolicies/fileuploadmax

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10mb,120796,en.pdf (accessed 3/2/2010) Reimers, E. Making Sense of a Murder of Honor
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In the U.K. the Association for the Study of Death and Society (ASDS) was launched at the Death, Dying and Disposal conference at Durham University in 2009 (DDD09). University of Bath has a Centre for Death and Society (CDSA) was established in 2005 and is associated with the publication Mortality. The CDSA website provides a list of publication that are devoted to the end of life, death and bereavement. http://www.bath.ac.uk/cdas/publications/journals/index.html (accessed 3/2/2010) See also journal Death Studies 2 The educational benefit is generally accepted as a justification for the retention and display of human remains and images of remain however there are exceptions Rosemary Stack in her resentation to the Exhibiting Human Remains: a provocative seminar presented by the Health and Medicine Museums, Australia May 2000 states Of all the Aboriginal communities consolted, none has elected to allow ancestral remains to remain in university collections for scientific research, 3 This information is taken from the Body Worlds website and is dated 29/7/2009. (http://www.bodyworlds.com/en/media.html) accessed 1/2/2010 4 Harris & Connolly 2002 5 Bauman 2000 p. 20 6 Searle, A. Getting under the skin, The Guardian, 23/3/2002 http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/mar/23/arts.arts (accessed 4/2/2010) 7 Fusco 1991 8 The Wellcome Trust is the Larges charity in the UK. It funds innovative biomedical research, in the UK and internationally, spending over 600 million each year to support the brightest scientists with the best ideas. The Wellcome Trust supports public debate about biomedical research and its impact on health and wellbeing. http://www.wellcomecollection.org/press/press-releases/exquisitebodies.aspx (accessed 4/2/2010) 9 http://www.wellcomecollection.org/explore/life-genes--you/video.aspx 10 Heiner Schmitz