“Remember That You Will Die: Death Across Cultures” at the Rubin Museum of Art

By: Justin Wolf

 

 

 

 
Skull Pocket Watch, Europe, 1701-1900, silver. Courtesy of the Science Museum, London

 

  Memento Mori is the Latin-Christian maxim translated as “Remember that you will die.” It is altogether sobering and, in some perverted sense, comforting; it’s an epitaph for the masses—commoners and kings alike. It is also the subject of the Rubin Museum’s latest offering, of the same name, and although said offering is a modest one (it’s probably too much to ask for them get a Cézanne or Van Gogh skull still-life on loan), this exhibition is, quite literally, breath-taking.

  “Remember That You Will Die” is a cross-sampling of European-Christian and Tibetan-Buddhist artworks and artifacts, mostly from the 16^th and 17^th centuries, with a contemporary video art installation for its centerpiece. Selected from a short list of lenders, including the Met, the Museum of Natural History, and London’s Science Museum, each piece is displayed with the careful precision of an ornithological taxidermist. The exhibition’s paintings and sculpture, its rosaries made from human bone and papier-mâché death masks, its macabre “quotidian objects” all scream Don’t Touch!, and they have a point. It’s better for everyone’s peace of mind that these stunning relics, much like our everlasting souls, remain unblemished.

  The most popular Western incarnation, so to speak, of Memento Mori, is the depiction of Judgment Day, when Christ decides to make his return to earth and do what needs doing. Side by side on one wall are two 16^th-century Dutch oil paintings – The Last Judgment and Christ’s Descent into Hell – that relay this tale with all the subtlety befitting fire and brimstone.

  In the former, Christ returns via some medieval-looking Stargate. Raising his right arm, he guides his followers upward, and with his left arm held at waist-level, he keeps the heretics at bay while swarthy blue-green demons infiltrate the crowd and carry out their worst. For a chuckle (or scare), take note of the painting’s bottom-left corner, where a simian-like Judas character is emerging from his gopher hole, and wearing a self-satisfied grin at having snuck in among the saved. The scale of Last Judgment is crude, its painterly touches a tad overly precious, but its narrative will strike a chord in even the most devoted atheist.

  As for Christ’s Descent, painted in the style of Hieronymus Bosch, just imagine a wide-angled snapshot of Middle Earth if Lord Sauron had gotten back his ring. Rivers of oil cut through burnt canyons and cavernous voids, while the emaciated masses walk amongst larger-than-life rats and owls and, in one instance, a creature that appears to be the face of an Israelite grafted onto the hind parts of an eagle. The painting shows us the Harrowing of Hell, wherein John the Baptist, acting as travel agent, paved the way for Jesus to enter Hell and, supposedly, view the procession of the damned. Still, it’s a safe bet that J.C. showing up was the highlight to their day.

 

 

 
Lords of the Charnel Grounds (one from set of two), Tibet, 18^th century, bronze.

Courtesy of American Museum of Natural History

 

 

  Heading over to the gallery’s eastern artifacts, I am faced with objects that treat death as something with a little more equanimity – as in, “Let’s embrace what we all know is coming,” versus Western civilization’s take, “You best atone now or there’ll be hell to pay.” A Buddhist’s death (and his general attitude towards it) is no less bona fide than a Christian’s, but when it comes to the ultimate truth in artistic form, I for one appreciate a lesson in human anatomy over the bravura of the second coming.

  On that note, perhaps the creepiest artifact on hand is Skeleton Club, a 19^th-century Tibetan wand made from wood, pigment and plaster. This armless torso is all ribs and vertebrae, with blood-shot eyes and a shit-eating grin that send chills down your spine. In Tibetan lore, Yama the Lord of Death holds his skeleton club while presiding over the various Buddhist “hells.” Skeleton Club must have been quite the archaeological find, but to this contemporary, it looks like a curio from Tim Burton’s childhood toy chest.

  In the center of all this is American artist Bill Viola’s silent video installation, Three Women, from his 2008 Transfigurations series. On a plasma screen the approximate shape and size of a doorway, Viola’s three subjects – Anika, Cornelia, and Helena Ballent, each a generation apart – step towards us in ultra slow motion, swathed in a grainy black-and-white that looks as dated as it does haunting. Each woman becomes transformed as she (oldest first) passes through a crystalline waterfall, rendering her to full color and clarity, having arrived on earth and, more to the point, onto the top floor of the Rubin with the rest of us. My eyes meet hers, and I am jarred from my spot; physiologically, I’m scared to my bones.

 

 

 

 
Bill Viola, Three Women, 2008 , color high-def video on plasma display mounted on wall.

Photo courtesy of Smithsonian Art Museum

 

 

 

  After the youngest of the women has been transfigured, one by one they turn around and slowly pass back into obscurity, through the waters that take life as easily as they grant it. Watch as much of Three Women as your constitution will allow. There is no beginning and no end; there’s no “show time” to catch. It just is.

  Death is certain and for that reason alone it is just. And even though “Remember That You Will Die” is designed to “startle viewers out of apathy,” I find it more startling for its treatment of how seemingly divergent cultures deal with this certainty, day in and day out. This exhibit affected me on a more immediate level, or perhaps, a less consequential one. I was struck by how fun I imagined curating this thing must have been; cobbling together a sparse variety of objects and artworks that are, for better or worse, death incarnate – “Memento Mori” with a wink and a smile.

   

 

 

 

“Remember That You Will Die: Death Across Cultures” at the Rubin Museum of Art, runs through August 9^th

 

The Rubin Museum of Art

150 West 17^th Street

Take the A, C, E to 14^th St., the 1, 2, 3 to 14^th St., the F, V to 14^th St., the L to 14^th St., or the N, R, Q, W, 4, 5, 6 to 14^th St/Union Sq.

Museum Hours: M-Thurs, 11-5; W, 11-7; F, 11-10; Sat-Sun, 11-6

Exhibition website: http://www.rmanyc.org/nav/exhibitions/view/543

   

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