Non Compos Mentis Captured in Copper
Posted by michelle on 10 Aug 2007 at 01:37 pm | Tagged as: art paparazzi, responses/reviews
The Dark Matters show at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts stunningly displays contemporary artworks that puncture complacency and give us a glimpse into clandestine military operations, death and starling migrations . Initially, I plotted an epic post full of everything I saw in San Francisco. However, the work was so different and so in depth that I’m just going to write reviews seriatim to keep things succinct and accessible.
David Maisel is a photographer that I can’t stop thinking about. The artist’s initial interest stemmed from this question:
What happens to our bodies when we die? And, too, what happens to our souls?
These copper canisters contain the unclaimed remains of patients that inhabited the Oregon State Insane Asylum [in the days before euphemisms like "San Antonio State Hospital"]. Maisel said he was photographing the corroding urns when a prison worker assigned to clean up at the facility leaned into the room and whispered “The Library of Dust…”
“Where is Diana?” asked the Earl, looking about in search of that lively young lady.
“Don’t worry about it,” she was told. “You have all the time in the world”