© Clara Helbig, 2021
In 1971, experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage made a film titled The Act Of Seeing With One’s Own Eyes. The experimental documentary consists of a 40-minute recording of an autopsy. With close-ups of open rip cages and exposed brain matter, one has a hard time looking yet cannot help but observe every second of it. The body becomes equally a symbolic subject and organic matter. By far one of the most stripped back cinematic portrayals of the human condition, Brakhage perfectly illustrates our complex relationship with death.
This essay is going to explore issues surrounding death and bodily decay. The following words will trace the changes in the social perception of the body and its transient nature over the last centuries. In doing so, themes of memory, materiality and ecology will be explored. The aim is to question the separation of the body from its biological value as organic matter through modern-day funeral practices. The subsequent statements are not aiming to be fully universal representations of the human experience but predominantly stand in relationship to Western, Christian-majority cultures.