LA MUERTE
130 x 195 cm
Óleo sobre lienzo

Death

«Birth is the beginning of a macabre dance that concludes with death.» —Tachi

What is death?

Death is an inevitable and inherent event of life, where an organism ceases to function and loses its autonomy, transitioning into a state of decay as inert matter. For humans, death can be described as the loss of consciousness as an individual, something that has always terrified us, often making it a taboo subject, while simultaneously arousing a certain fascination and curiosity.

However, one thing we are often unaware of, because we live with our backs turned to it, is that the naturalness of death is overwhelming.

Death is natural, necessary, and unavoidable.

Humans observe that when their fellow beings die, the person who consciously controlled and directed the body disappears, leaves, and abandons the body.

Thus, the eternal question arises!

What happens after death? Where does the deceased go? This creates the need to seek out another life beyond.

This is why religions and the worship of gods emerge, as a means to contact the afterlife, the place where our deceased loved ones go.

Rites as we know them today, involving tombs and places for visiting the dead, were not practiced until humans transitioned from a nomadic to a sedentary lifestyle during the Mesolithic period. Before that, bodies could be consumed by their families—a theory supported by the fact that no buried bodies have been found. Given the scarcity of protein at that time, this practice seemed logical, and it was also a way of keeping the remains with them, so it’s not so far-fetched that these cannibalistic behaviors existed.

However, the earliest known intentional burials are attributed to the Neanderthals during the Middle Paleolithic period (130,000-35,000 B.C.), where individual and family graves have been discovered.

Funeral rituals reflect the belief in an afterlife, where the deceased are buried with grave goods and offerings, as it was believed that the dead would have the same needs in the afterlife as they did in life. In all cases, grave goods such as flint tools, ornaments, and hunting remains have been found.

From that time onwards, both Neanderthals and Homo sapiens have maintained a continuous search for parallel universes that would give continuity to the sudden end of earthly and conscious life.

A clear example of this can be seen in the Egyptians, who would provide their deceased with the possessions they had in life and prepare them with sophisticated embalming systems.

But we don’t have to go that far back. Even today, especially in the highest economic spheres, extensive research and resources are devoted to the possibility of life after death, through the preservation of the body via cryogenics, and its potential future reanimation.

(Bodies have been cryogenically preserved since 1967, with James Bedford being the first.)

In the artwork, three spaces are presented, which are found in almost all religions or doctrines that believe in life after death:
– Purgatory (Where all the action takes place)
– Hell (The place to which the stairs on the ground lead)
– Heaven (The hole leading to the light at the top) Let’s briefly review these beliefs.

The existence of Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory is not exclusive to Christianity. Paradoxically, the closest reading can be found in Islam. Almost all religions believe in eternal salvation and damnation. Thus, most ancient religions believed in an afterlife, although not necessarily in Hell. Early Judaism believed in «Sheol,» a shadowy existence to which all were indiscriminately sent after death. Hinduism and Buddhism believe in Hell, but only as a transitional place within the cycle of reincarnations. Hindus believe in up to 21 hells. Meanwhile, Greek mythology, partially adopted by the Romans, spoke of Hades as the place where the souls of the dead arrived after crossing the river Styx with the help of Charon. In ancient Norse mythology, there existed a dark world (the realm of Hel) for the souls of those who failed to enter «Valhalla.»

As for Purgatory, it is not accepted by Orthodox and Protestant churches. The Lutheran Reformation began precisely as a protest against the sale of indulgences for souls in Purgatory. As mentioned earlier, Islam’s concept of Purgatory is similar to that of Catholicism.

Zoroastrians also recognize the existence of the «Hamistagan,» where the souls of those whose good and bad deeds are in balance find the opportunity to earn a place in Heaven.

Finally, Heaven as a place of eternal happiness is contemplated by almost all religions. This concept eventually supplanted the idea of Sheol in Judaism. Jewish converts to this concept of Heaven and Hell included the group known as the Pharisees, while the conservative Sadducees maintained their belief in Sheol. The Pharisees passed on the belief in Heaven to Christianity and Islam.

The artwork reflects on the taboo subject of death from the solitary perspective of the individual.

Death is an event that, like birth, we face alone; no one can accompany us in this process. Death gives life its meaning.

It is important because it makes us aware of life.

Yet, we live with our backs turned to it, even though it is the most certain thing that exists. Death is faced individually and in complete solitude.

In the artwork, this reflection is seen in the city that transforms into a line of vital signs. The city is a bustle of noise and constant activity, but that city disappears in the moment before death, and the isolated individual becomes aware of their loneliness in the face of the second most important moment of their existence—death.

Collective fears and popular imagery about death have led us to personify it as an «entity» in literature, painting, and sculpture. In the artwork, it appears as a skeletal being with anthropomorphic features, towering over the deceased, armed with a scythe to reap life at will and at the chosen moment, affecting both the rich and the poor, people of all kinds without distinction—we are all equal before it.

Opposite this figure is us, the kneeling figure, terrified of the imminent end, accounting for the meaning of a whole life before a superior being or before ourselves (our final judgment).

The figure appears kneeling, submissive to the humility that the occasion demands.

The figure feels panic, fear, emptiness, and its gaze is hollow. The figure collapses backward in three sequences, becoming less human until it disintegrates. We transition into a state of energy because, materially, we disappear. Dust you are and to dust, you shall return, conveying the consciousness of nothingness and the vanity of things.

The ancient coin or «Obol» in the artwork represents the Myth of Charon. Charon is a figure from Greek mythology, the ferryman who carries the souls of the dead to Hades, where they are judged to determine their place of rest. The Greeks believed that the dead needed a coin to pay Charon for his services, so they placed one in the mouth or on the eyes of the deceased.

However, the coin with my arrogant face symbolizes the paradox of accumulating wealth without enjoying life. In the face of death, arrogance, conceit, and pride born of social or economic power disappear—death takes away all our riches, for which many of us have fought and probably wasted our short lives.

We never know, or it is difficult to foresee, the moment when we will leave this world, except in one curious and unnatural case: suicide!

This is the moment when an individual decides to end their most precious possession—their life. And this is not an isolated detail, as nearly 800,000 people commit suicide each year.

The artwork mentions this self-elimination in the figure in the center, depicted as a small white figure that collapses in three sequences.

The question is, why do people take their own lives?

There is much to be said about this topic, but one of the main reasons is that humans today do not fulfill the functions for which the species was created. This creates frustrations and mental imbalances, leading to the many psychological disorders we see today.

However, in the artwork, I have sought to reflect the poetic sense of suicide.

The publication of Goethe’s novel *The Sorrows of Young Werther* in 1774 (a book of 19th- century Romanticism) was followed by a wave of suicides among young people of both sexes inspired by its unfortunate hero.

The Romantic poetization of suicide explains it as resulting from overwhelming pain and irremediable emotional despair. This approach is de-ideologized, with the poet refraining from any attitude that might compel him to approve or disapprove of this behavior towards life and death. Thus, the painted silhouette appears to perform an exaggerated dance in its mortal act, leaping into the void from a mound, weeping for its beloved.

In the artwork, there is a tiled floor that plays with perspectives.

The black and white tiles simulate the old hospital floors, while also representing the duality of good and evil, heaven and hell. The black tiles are dark, deep holes leading to the terrifying unknown depths of the underworld.

At the beginning of the hallway, there are yellow stains that contrast with the black tiles. This combination shows what is called Homeopantosis, one of the most common patterns used by nature to signal the danger of poison in certain living beings, known as the code of death.

Following these stains are stairs that descend into the dark and unknown depths below, suggesting the path to the dreaded hell, the eternal destination of souls condemned for their unacceptable actions by the religion of the time.

The hallway extends toward the back of the artwork, rising toward a hole in the darkness, leading to the white light, a light that many people who have had near-death experiences describe seeing.

The path leads us to the desired heavenly paradise, deserved by those souls who lived lives of restraint and moderation.

Finally, I undoubtedly have the answers to the initial questions. What happens after death? Where does the deceased go?

If we observe, the beginning and the end in the painting are connected. The end is the beginning.

The sensation of the «I» before birth will be the same sensation of the «I» after death. What is there after death?

What there was before birth!