Mark 12:31, « The second most important commandment is this: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these. »

12:31 is a photographic series by Croix Gagnon and Frank Schott. In 1993, a convicted murderer was executed. His body was given to science, segmented, and photographed for research. Croix and Frank used that footage to create these 7 photographs.

An animation of the 1871 slices was played fullscreen on a computer, which was moved around by an assistant while being photographed in a dark environment. The resulting images are long-exposure “light paintings” of the entire cadaver. Prints are for sale for $700 and all proceeds benefit Amnesty International.

Exposition présentée à la galerie Art Mûr jusqu’à samedi prochain :

Memento Mori / Bone Again
Exposition collective / Group exhibition

Shawn Ayerst, Colleen McLaughlin Barlow, Simon Bilodeau, Julien Boily, Jean-Robert Drouillard, Al Farrow (on en parlait ici), Sarah Garzoni, Catherine Heard, Damien Hirst, Spring Hurlbut, Laura Kikauka, Sarah Perry, Nicholas & Sheila Pye, Bevan Ramsay, Christoph Steinmeyer, Karine Turcot, Brandon Vickerd, Colleen Wolstenholme

Du 12 mars au 23 avril 2011 / March 12 – April 23, 2011

… ‘Crânes et ossements occupent une place prépondérante dans les productions artistiques contemporaines. Que devons-nous comprendre de la forte présence de cette iconographie dans le contexte actuel? Tous conviennent à reconnaître un regain d’intérêt généralisé pour les vanités, et ce autant dans les œuvres d’art, la mode, le design, etc. On les retrouve partout – sur les pochettes de disques, les livres, les bijoux, les t-shirts. Le dédain que le crâne humain a longtemps suscité disparaît, la mort ne semble plus faire peur. Cette libération de la crainte de mourir est principalement due à l’effritement de l’emprise religieuse sur nos vies. Les vanités modernes sont devenues autant de représentations de cette nouvelle liberté. Baruch Spinoza, philosophe néerlandais, a écrit : « Un homme libre ne pense à aucune chose moins qu’à la mort, et sa sagesse est une méditation non de la mort mais de la vie»’ …

Invitation (PDF)

Art Mûr / 5826 rue St-Hubert / Montréal, Québec

Trouvé sur le Morbid Anatomy :

On view until May 15th of this year at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, a new exhibition of relics and reliquaries entitled « Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics and Devotion in Medieval Europe« 

To get a sense of the kinds of treasures that await, check out the Treasures of Heaven « Digital Monograph » (from which these images were drawn) by clicking here.

… ‘Reliquaries proclaimed the special status of their sacred contents to worshipers and pilgrims, and for this reason, were often objects of artistic innovation, expressions of civic and religious identity, and focal points of ritual action. This exhibition will feature 133 metalworks, sculptures, paintings and illuminated manuscripts from Late Antiquity through the Reformation and beyond. It will explore the emergence and transformation of several key types of reliquary, moving from an age in which saintly remains were enshrined within closed containers to an era in which relics were increasingly presented directly to worshipers’ …

… « As early as the second century AD, the relics of Christian saints – including their bones, ashes and other bodily remains – were thought to be more valuable than the most precious gemstones. They were believed to be a conduit for the power of the saints and to provide a direct link between the living faithful and God, » said Martina Bagnoli, Robert and Nancy Hall associate curator of medieval art and exhibition co-curator. « These remains were treated with reverence and often enshrined in containers that used luxurious and precious materials to proclaim the relics’ importance. »

Treasures of Heaven
Feb. 13, 2011 – May 15th, 2011
Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland