Pondering Mortality

 A part of one of the masonic rituals has you pondering your own mortality. I won't say more than that. I can't say much more, but if you've ever seen some of those cheesy movies about secret societies, some of what goes on is not far off the mark. 

I mean, unless you're a medical student, how often do you find yourself staring down a skull?

But what if you were to look at a lot of them? How would you feel?

The artist Ron Meuck puts this reality in front of you with his exhibition, Mass, which is on at the Dennis Potter Centre, Fed Square (also known as the NGV Australia) until 15 January. 

What can I say? After a wonderful time at book group, with an hour to kill, I took myself off to the near silent gallery. It was blowing a gale - Melbourne before a storm. The quiet was welcome as I made my way up to the third floor, bypassing the Australian decorative painting (still with the urge to visit the Boyds, the Drysdales and the McCubbins). 

And I found where all the people were. A lot of them appeared to be speaking loudly in Tagalog, but so be it. It would have been nice if they were using their gallery voices.

But still, as the gallery wasn't busy, I got to have a mooch around with mortality, these realistic oversized skulls, hand crafted, all slightly different and quite mesmerising.

I saw these a few years ago at the Triennieale - they've lost none of their impact. 

If anything, the things going through my mind were things like Cambodia, The Killing Fields, catacombs...things like that.

I love that every skull is slightly different. They have their own personalities. 

There's a film at the end of the exhibition which details how Meuck made this masterpiece. I'm thinking I will go back and have a look with the hope that the loud commentary in another language won't be there. 

It's a fascinating view of humanity.

Thankfully, all visits to the NGV are still free. It's worth a visit just for the building. 

Today's song: