Quietus: the
Vessel, Death and the Human Body
by Julian Stair
Somerset House
until January 26th
Beneath Somerset
House's famous neo-classical courtyard - used for film sets, fashion shows and currently
as a glamorous ice skating venue, is the Deadhouse. It’s a web of underground
passages punctuated by cells and alcoves, with memorials lining the walls, each grabbing
your attention with their true life stories. The one below is triumphant. One Edmund
Fortescue Esquire, third son of a Worcestershire Knight, "exchanged this
life for immortality" on May 7th, 1674, while in his 70th year, which
sounds like a bargain.
On the right, spotlighted on a dull lead plinth, is a round white matt cinerary jar This too is celebratory. Reliquary
of a Common Man, 2012 is an artefact executed with
astonishing originality.The jar is made from the cremated remains of
Lesley James Cox, the artist’s friend and uncle-in-law. An accompanying Super-8
film, a slideshow of portraits and the murmur of Lesley James Cox’s recorded voice
tells his life story. This time there is no mention of resurrection, no promise
of eternal life. Instead the artist has literally transformed the mortal
remains of a man into a testimony to the worth and merit of that unique person.
It’s the final exhibit in Julian
Stair’s Quietus exhibition
where his works range from monumental life-sized sarcophagi to tiny burial jars.
Containing the human body in death raises emotionally charged issues. At the core of Stair’s practice is the belief that
pottery, as one of the oldest mediums, can encapsulate the most complex of
ideas, through elegant simplicity.
Click here for Shane Enright's excellent reviewwww.craftscouncil.org.uk/crafts-magazine/reviews/view/2012/newsarticle-201209051004-504723bc65350?fr
www.julianstair.com/home.html
www.somersethouse.org.uk/visual-arts/quietus
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