Marion Peck I Cari Estinti (The Dearly Departed)

mondo bizzaro gallery, 2006. Soft cover. Fine. Colored Plates. Made in Italy, The Dearly Departed features paintings by Marion Peck that were inspired by portrait photographs of now-dead children and animals from the 19th and early 20th centuries. When these Victorian-era photographs were taken, attitudes towards death were very different than they are today. The people who lived then knew death as an entity, a presence. Today, death has been banished from our society. Though death still fascinates, nobody wants to talk about it, and more than anything, the mention of it provokes embarrassment. Children and animals create a sentimental, emotional connection with the viewer; and while sentiment is despised by moderns, it provides an emotional retreat from which we can contemplate death more serenely. From the safety of its haze, we can look back to those who came before -- and perhaps feel a greater connection to our own souls.