Not just an object : Representation, disruption, and intention in contemporary art using human remains

Abstract: This essay explores the instances in which human remains were used as material for contemporary artworks. Partly, the aim of the research is to find out why these materials are used and why it is important for the intended purpose of the artist that they do so. Another part of the aim is to investigate the representational layers of the material, and how the use of the material fits into a larger sociological context surrounding what we consider “proper care” of the dead. This is achieved through a thematic interpretive analysis which looks at the representation of the material, disruption of the dead and intention provided by the artists through the theoretical perspectives of Thomas Laqueur, Robert Hertz and Amelia Jones. In the end, the research concludes that the use of human remains as material for artworks is an intentional and imperative choice by the artists, who use the material to make grander statements about predetermined social orders and provide alternative ways of conceiving remains. For this to be done, the disruption of those social orders is a vital act, which is achieved through the disruption of human remains, making the “proper care” of the dead a necessarily neglected process. The fact that these bodies do represent a self, a life which has been previously lived with differing degrees of immediacy, is also required for the previously mentioned disruption to be able to take place. Our inherent insistence to access these represented selves serves to cause discomfort and redirect our attention to the will of the artists, who, in the making of the artwork, either repress or collaborate with the represented selves in order to make the statements which they set out to make.