Skulls!

Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette- Vincent Van Gogh (1886)

Everybody loves skulls, right? I think they do. Artists love skulls for sure, they are a powerful motif and symbol representing many things including death, decay and the inevitable. Skeletons show what lies beneath every singe one of us.
It was the skulls and skeletons that were on display in the Pitt rivers that particularly interested me and sparked my project on the afterlife.

I wonder what he did to deserve this..
Below: Photographs from Pitt Rivers

Left: Ink drawing from a photograph I took at Pitt Rivers.
Right: observational scratch drawing of a rabbit skull.

                   

Various skulls and skeletons I found inspiring.

Initial drawings and mind map.

I was interested how the skulls of heroes were decorated but the skulls of enemies were bound up or put into torturous positions. The tribes who made these clearly believe that the condition of the skull has an impact on the person who it used to be.

It was then that I realised that a lot of cultures have death rituals and wondered what they are all about or mean.
And that is what started my research. I looked at contemporary illustrators' images of skulls using tumblr and pinterest to see different styles and interpretations. I also paid attention to other motifs used in conjuction with skeletons.

Dead King- Vance Kelly

Skull girl 1- Gaksdesigns

The Grateful dead's logo.

Artwork for the Grateful Dead, whose logo is a 
skull and lightning bolt. Roses and other 
flowers are seen with skulls in art a lot.

Dia de los Muertos, or the 'day of the dead' is a very famous south american festival of the dead. Families gather to remember lost loved ones, share gifts and build private altars to pray to the dead.
I like when flowers are used in conjucnction with skulls because it makes me think of new life. Our bodies rot down into nutrients which is food for worms, maggots and plants. Once we die, our body becomes a small part of many organisms and effectively lives on.
Our bodies are made up of chemicals and energy that have made up millions of other life forms. Ain't that crazy?

''Per Peccatum Mors..  In Omnes Homines Mors Pertransiit'
'death through sin..   death spread amongst all men'
-Alexander Mair 1605

The hell money that I made features two grinning skeletons.
I hope you can see how the image above partially inspired this.

I made this drawing over a marbled piece of paper in the second week and a teacher mentioned that it reminded them of a Damien Hirst installation that features brightly spin-painted skulls. 

Aztec skull in the British museum.

I found This video about Hirst's thought process behind this piece which is very interesting and I feel we share quite a few thoughts on death, especially that it is incomprehensible and thus very hard to picture in your head or communicate. Hirst especially addresses this with his most famous piece; 'The Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living'. I think that the name explains itself really quite well already. 

It is a Huge shark preserved in formaldehyde. When seen it can trigger quite an immediate fear response before the viewer realises that is is dead. The shark looks so alive, so animated within the tank. Hirst has managed to capture a feeling of life and death within one thing. I'm not surprised this is as famous as it is.

I also made a ceramic skull but that will be covered by a whole other blog post!