30/10/2002
Grave Matters
Mass MoCA, North Adams
Mark Taylor. The exhibition, which explores the lives and deaths of famous thinkers through photographic investigations of their gravesites, poses many questions: What place do modern greats have in the postmodern age? Who decided where and how these important individuals should be buried?
Mark Taylor's Grave Matters Explores the Lives and Deaths of Famous Thinkers
(North Adams, Massachusetts) This fall the Massachusetts Museum of
Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) presents Mark Taylor's Grave Matters. The
exhibition, which explores the lives and deaths of famous thinkers through
photographic investigations of their gravesites, poses many questions: What
place do modern greats have in the postmodern age? Who decided where and
how these important individuals should be buried? What do the deaths and
graves of these influential people tell us about their lives and suggest
about our own?
In Grave Matters, Williams College Professor Mark Taylor and photographer
Deitrich Christian Lammerts present beautiful and disturbing black and white
photographs of the gravesites of 150 artists, architects, writers,
philosophers, and musicians who have helped shape Western culture. The
photographs are displayed alongside text revealing each thinker's outlook on
his or her own demise and are accompanied by an audio installation of
selected texts as well as an interactive video which combines text and
images. Also presented in the exhibition is a remarkable display of soil
taken from each of the graves and arrayed in a dramatic inverted pyramid
The graves featured in the exhibition vary widely and are sometimes
surprising. Herman Melville, who wrote extensively about the terror of
whiteness and the empty page, has a blank scroll on his headstone while
Jackson Pollock's tombstone bears a reproduction of his own signature.
There are few epitaphs in the collection, and frequently the size and
quality of the monument depends on the living mourners overriding the
humility of the deceased. There are statues of James Joyce and Virginia
Woolf near their graves, though neither writer desired such commemoration.
"Graves matter. It is not just the matter of matter - dust, dirt, stones,
grass, leaves, moss, even mold - but the matter of place or its lack," says
Taylor, "Death forces us to consider our final place in the world - physical
as well as social." In his poignant and personal essay in the accompanying
book, Taylor writes, "In a world dominated by new technologies, we are
constantly reading about the ways of extending life. As we struggle to come
to terms with loss and one's final destiny, the great writers and authors of
the past have important lessons to teach us. Grave Matters is a memento
mori to help see life anew."
A catalog published by Reaktion Books of London is available for $25. The
exhibition is made possible by the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute,
through the "Clark @ MASS MoCA" collaborative initiative.
Grave Matters is accompanied by an interdisciplinary conference on November
8 and 9 with panelists Taylor, artist Ann Hamilton, architect and theorist
Peter Eisenman, novelist Joanna Scott, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author
Jack Miles. The conference, entitled Grave Matters: Memory, Memorial,
Mourning, is presented by the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute in
conjunction with MASS MoCA and Williams College Museum of Art. Additional
information about the symposium is available by calling the Clark at 413 458
2303.
Mark Taylor is the Cluett Professor of Humanities at Williams College. He
is the recipient of many awards, including a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial
Fellowship and a Carnegie Foundation award for the Advancement of Teaching.
Taylor's entrepreneurial venture with Herbert Allen, chairman and CEO of
Allen & Co., is Global Education Network, a company that provides
high-quality online education in the liberal arts, sciences, and humanities
for people of all ages. Dietrich Christian Lammerts is a former student of
Taylor's and a professional photographer. He is a recent graduate student
in Southeast Asian history at the School of Oriental and African Studies,
University of London, and is pursuing a doctorate at Cornell University in
Ithaca, New York.
Grave Matters opens Thursday, October 31, at MASS MoCA in the Fitzpatrick
Family Gallery. The exhibition will close in May 2003.
Until October 31, MASS MoCA's galleries are open from 10 A.M. to 6 P.M.
every day. Admission is $9 adults, $3 children 6-16, and free for children
under 6. Admission is free for members at all times. After November 1,
galleries are open 11-5, closed Tuesdays. Winter admission is $7 adults, $5
students and seniors, $2 children 6 - 16 and free for children under 6.
MASS MoCA, housed on a 13-acre campus of restored 19th-century factory
buildings, is the largest center for contemporary art in the country. MASS
MoCA is located off Marshall Street in North Adams, Massachusetts.
MASS MoCA
1040 MASS MoCA Way
North Adams, MA 01247
413-664-4481 ext. 8111
FX: 413-663-8548