6. If it were possible to stand it poinDng upwards, it
would look like nothing more exactly than a
termites’ mound.
How interesDng, that a process of decay and the
industrious construcDon of several thousand
insects can produce habitats so similar in form!
7. Ques3oning
• Which kind of tree was it once a part of? Was
it a plane tree?
• What is the significance of plane trees?
• What gave it its red colour?
• How long did it take, from falling to the
ground, for the wood to become like this?
• How long does it take for a piece of wood to
rot down completely?
• Who lives in it and when did they arrive?
8. Metaphysical ques3ons
• How do people intervene in nature’s progress
from new growth to dying and decay?
• Why do we find meaning in shapes even
though they may be random?
• Does anyone else find beauty in roNenness
and decay?
• What can I learn from this about living life
more richly Dll the day I die?
9. Stories:
My exisDng knowledge
I already know and love John Keats’ fascinaDon
with the beauty and transience of nature
14. New Learning
If you Google ‘roNenness’, a Punk website is the
first hit. Did the Punk movement draw on
some deep insDnct in people for reconciling
ourselves to death and decay, or was it just a
reacDon to a complacent 20th Century culture
of order and control?
Or both?
17. ... including the writers of this ‘Elytra and
Antenna’ website:
“These pages are dedicated to those enthusiasts whose
love for beetles, walkingsDcks, grasshoppers,
manDds, and other invertebrates has brought them
to rearing of these alien creatures so that they can
enjoy their anDcs and beauty year round.”
Females lay eggs in holes that they
excavate in old roNen wood. Larvae feed
on the fungi and take about nine months
to reach maturity when fed roNen oak,
beech and some other hardwoods.
medium stag beetle
21. Gregor Schneider
“There is nothing perverse about a dying person in an
art gallery...” (April 2008)
For years, I have a dreamed of a room in which people
can die in peace. It's a simple room: flooded with light,
with a wooden floor
I have recreated this room ‐ as an arDst, that is what I do ‐
and at the moment, it is standing right here in my
studio. Any minute it could be dismantled, put on a
plane and reinstalled anywhere in the world, for
someone nearing the end of their days and who wants
to die in a humane and harmonious environment.
24. Who and what is decaying here?
• Within a few days, thousands of arDcles appeared
across the world... In a way, I am not surprised that
they have triggered some absolutely horrific images in
the heads of journalists and readers. And yet I am sDll
astonished by the nature of the comments I received,
and disturbed by their vulgarity and violence. I
received threats in mulDple languages, some of them
absurd, some of them seriously threatening.
• Someone emailed to suggest I should be "slaughtered"
and given "the Jesus treatment". Someone else
emailed: "Why don't you kill your mother and show
her to us while he's [sic] dying?" Another told me my
artworks were "degenerate".
25. The Beauty of Death
by Kahlil Gibran
Sing of the past as you behold the dawn of
hope in my eyes, for
Its magic meaning is a soi bed upon which my
heart rests.