Differing Themes of Death

We visited the Brompton Road Cemetery on the 18^th of March as our site visit for the week. During class, we discussed death culture in the Victorian era and saw how some artists perceived the idea of death through their works. We discovered that the Victorian view on death was much darker than it is today. In the past, people saw death as a time to be sad and to mourn those that they have lost, but now we often see it as a time to reflect on good memories and to celebrate life. These views have shifted since the beginning and can be seen through burials in the Brompton Cemetery.

In the Victorian period, many people kept relics of the ones they loved. This included things like death masks and jewelry made from the person’s hair. When visiting the cemetery, we also saw many different symbolized themes simply through headstones and caskets used. Some Victorians, like Christina and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, saw death as a tragic loss, and they used broken columns as a symbol of a life cut short, or angels as perpetual mourners. They believed that it would be better to either always be saddened by someone’s memories or to forget about them after death and move on.

However, today we can see death both as a loss and as a celebration of life. When walking through the cemetery, it was noticeable that people mourned death much more then than we do now. Today this cemetery offers an almost peaceful environment. Instead of relics, we use photographs to remember our loved ones and flowers to brighten their spirits. We now wear colors to a funeral to show that we are celebrating a life lived rather than a life lost. The Victorians saw darkness and tragedy in relation to death, and it was clearly represented in the Brompton Road Cemetery.

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/england/london/attractions/brompton-cemetery/a/poi-sig/371003/358914

Symbols in the Cemetery

On March 18th we visited Brompton Cemetery, a Victorian cemetery opened in 1840. In class we had discussed symbolism in Victorian death culture and how these symbols represented the Victorians’ various ideas of death with themes of sadness and hope. Many of these elements were present as we wandered around the cemetery and its 35,000 gravestones. When walking through the area, the most frequent sculptures were the angels and broken columns. To the Victorians, the angels represented spiritual beings that served as a connection between the living and the dead, therefore connecting them to their departed loved ones. They saw intact columns as a sign of stability and support, so the numerous broken columns standing above the gravestones represented a life cut short and a loss of security. While broken columns called attention to human mortality and the sadness that comes with death, the headstones carved into anchors represented hope and strength; the Victorians associated anchors with sailors arriving safely at the end of their journey.

These symbols associated with death all share the common intent to remember the dead and preserve their memory, whether in a sorrowful way through broken columns or in a hopeful way through angels and anchors. Though she is a Victorian writer, Christina Rossetti’s poems “Song” and “Remember” contrast with this idea of remembrance. Her poems suggest that forgetting the dead may be more beneficial to the living because they are saddened by remembering people who have died. This made me wonder if a cemetery’s only purpose is to remember the dead or if it can allow us to forget as well. While going to a cemetery can allow someone to move on from a loved one’s death, I think that setting up a grave for someone innately creates a way to remember them, not forget them. The death symbols that are placed on graves contribute to this theme of remembrance: they remind visitors that the cemetery is a sad and hopeful place to think about the stories of people buried there. A grave is something physical that exists to represent a person, and while looking at their headstone with various symbolic elements can evoke acceptance or curiosity, it doesn’t let them forget that person.

https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/brompton-cemetery

Death and Mourning in the Victorian Era

Visiting the Brompton Road Cemetery was an interesting experience for me. In my early childhood, the concept of death confused me; I wanted to know exactly where someone who died went, how they got there, how long they would be there, etc. These questions stemmed from the fact that I was a curious kid who didn’t understand anything without a clear-cut, black and white answer. But as I have matured, death no longer confuses me as much as it discomforts me.

In the Victorian era, however, death and mourning practices were very group-oriented and common. Mourning was known for being very public, and there were three distinct periods: full mourning, second mourning, and half mourning. It was considered normal to drag on the grieving, as cutting it short would be a breach of the rules. Dress code and behavior were strictly regulated during each phase of mourning, especially for women, and many different forms of symbolism were used. For example, photographs of the deceased were displayed, loved ones wore the deceased’s hair as jewelry, and intricate designs were carved into graves.

Learning about death in the Victorian era made me think how society deals with death today. I am still unsure about how I personally feel about cemeteries —whether I find them peaceful or ominous— but I can understand why many people find comfort in them. During my walk around the Brompton Road Cemetery, I saw a few people who seemed to be praying and others walking their dogs and/or babies in carriages. Flowers of different kinds were planted or placed around many of the graves, and I noticed symbols of the cross and angels on multiple tombstones.

However,  Christina Rossetti’s poem Song contrasts greatly with what I observed at the cemetery, as well as with traditional Victorian Era practices surrounding death. In her poem, Rossetti addresses someone she cares for and tells them they should not grieve after she dies. She specifically asks for no flowers to be planted and no sad songs to be sung. She wished for those around her to move on and endure life without thinking about her passing. Personally, Rossetti’s dismissiveness about her own death struck me, especially because she grew up in the Victorian Era when death entailed such extravagant rituals. I was surprised she wanted no sort of remembrance at all, not even something as simple as flowers.

Post 2: Victorian Imagination and Science Fiction

For class this week, the main focus was on the Victorians and Science Fiction. In lecture, we discussed how H. G. Wells and minds like him in the 19^th century began to envision a different world where the impossible was possible. The Victorians began to think larger and stranger than the eras of the past had, which led to the extremely successful genre of science fiction. We also talked about how science fiction created a path to real science through imagination and wonder. In order for a real scientific breakthrough to be discovered or created, someone had to have an outrageous thought or idea that was worthy of attempting to bring that idea to fruition. These ideas were often pulled from science fiction or based off of an idea that was only crazy enough to be thought of as science fiction at the time. A great example of this was explained by the group who presented this week with the Argonauts of the Air and the “flying machine” and the Wright Brothers creating the first successful airplane just a few years later.

Because of this connection of real science with science fiction, it was interesting to wander about the Science Museum as part of the class this week. I went into the museum with this connection in mind, and it was hard to ignore how easily any discovery or invention in the museum could have once been considered only a reality in science fiction. Aside from the “flying machines,” I saw the Difference Engine that was discussed in class and thought about how we talked about how it was the origins for what we know as a computer. To go even further, I saw a very small display about the iPod. To think that the Difference Engine enabled the iPod through technological advances and discoveries that were at once perceived to be science fiction was mind blowing. I began trying to imagine how the Victorians would react to the idea of an automated handheld music device that contained over 1,000 songs on it (they would probably think that they were dreaming). These two devices/inventions on display at the Science Museum reinforced the idea behind Victorian fantasy and how it evolved into modern reality.

 https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjM_5z1wZ7hAhVSxhoKHbpuBDkQMwjYASgOMA4&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ifixit.com%2FDevice%2FiPod_3rd_Generation&psig=AOvVaw0QNx_3WsCLJAp5RzEdp3VC&ust=1553645305166847&ictx=3&uact=3

Death Culture in the Victorian Era

One cannot talk about life in the Victorian era without mentioning death--and what death meant to those in that time period. As we learned during our discussion in class about death and after touring the Brompton Cemetery, death was a common factor of life in the Victorian Era. It was not feared, it often was not even sad. Death was a natural and inevitable aspect of life that the Victorians accepted. Death customs were extremely important.

As we walked around Brompton Cemetery, I felt this sense of the idea that death is natural, something that the Victorians thrived upon. In today's society, death is often seen as tragic. But walking around, I felt serene and at peace. I think this in large part is due to the fact that the cemetery is so intertwined with the everyday lives of the people living in the neighborhood. The cemetery is often used as a park to walk your dog, or its seen as the fastest route to get to work. 

Something in particular that I noticed that I was not able to snap a picture of was a man sitting cross-legged on a bench meditating. Before coming to Brompton Cemetery, the concepts of cemeteries and meditation did not go hand-in-hand to me. However, I could now totally understand the sense of serenity provoked from the Cemetery that encouraged this man to meditate--to find his own sense of well-being and peace. Although I do not have a picture of that, the picture I chose to use below is a representation of how the cemetery is now a part of everyday Londoner's lives, and how it's an extension of the neighborhood. This image reinforces the Victorian ideology that death is natural and an inevitability of life. 

In class, we discussed Christina Rossetti's piece "Song: When I am dead, my dearest." She says, "when I am dead, my dearest; sing no sad songs for me...be the green grass above me/with showers and dewdrops wet; and if thou wilt, remember, and if thou wilt, forget."As I was reading this, I was struck by her apparent indifference to her own death. She does not want her loved ones to spend all their energy mourning her. Although in some ways, her words do not align with the typical Victorian idea of death because Victorians were infamous for being obsessed with death and the rituals that follow; her words do relate to the Victorian idea of understanding the inevitability of death. Her song is calm, and brings this sense of calm to the nature of death. 

This is shown through the cemetery because the cemetery was a place of calm, with very few objects or flowers on the tombstones. Just as Rossetti touches on, the Brompton cemetery is not a place where people are obsessed with death--it is a place where death is not good nor bad, but a place where humans gather to live their own lives and give their respect to those who have passed before them. 

http://www.lda-design.co.uk/brompton-cemetery-wins-top-award/

Leighton House Visit

When thinking about Orientalism, the first thing that comes to mind is how artists, writers, and designers from the West often try to recreate the eastern aesthetic the best they know how either from experience and memory or from stories and imagination. I was fortunate enough to see this come to life during a site visit to the famous Leighton House. This is where artist Frederic Leighton built one of the most exquisite orientalist interiors that often inspired his paintings and sculptures. There was one room in particular that I felt reflected orientalism at its finest, and that was the Arab Hall.

The Arab Hall was filled with beautiful tiles that were brought over from many different eastern countries. These tiles were not perfect, considering that some were misplaced or had scriptures on them that didn’t quite line up with their true meaning, but overall they were put in place to inspire. It was said that Leighton used his home as a form of entertainment for his guests. He would guide them through his many intricately designed rooms and tell them of all the stories that he had acquired from traveling around Algeria, Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and Syria. He would describe how each object, piece of art, or colored wall would help inspire his art.

One piece in particular that I believe this orientalist perspective inspired, was Light of the Harem painted by Leighton in 1880. Both the headdress on the woman and the robe on the young girl include patterns that closely match the Arab Hall. These patterns are not commonly seen in England or in most other British art pieces. This not only proves that Leighton had seen these patterns displayed in the East, but that he studied them within his own home in order to create patterns that so closely resemble them. He may not have paid attention to the true identity of the East, but he captured the beauty he saw there.

The Intersection of Market Logic and Modern Art

While there are thousands of art museums within the United States none of them employ a standard of branding to that I witnessed at The Tate Britain. The business case presented by Julian Stallabrass' The Branding of The Museum changed the way I thought about the museum during my first visit. From the name to the Paul Smith uniforms worn by the employees, the attention to detail on every visitor-facing part of The Tate is objectively satisfying. Stallabrass examines the reason why The Tate appears to have the marketing team of Harrod's rather than a more subtle approach seen at other museums.

The core point of his commentary is the disappointment that cultural institutions such as The Tate Britain have been so neglected by the government charged with their care that they must resort to the tactics of a shopping mall or high-end restaurant to continue operations. In his eyes the are alone should prove worthwhile enough to keep visitors flowing and government revenue flowing in. Consumerism focused details in the museum such as gift shops filled with hip merchandise and the signs pointing towards them are the main issues that exist within the museum. In Stallabrass' eyes the museum interior is sad but he rails the hardest against the Tate for allowing major corporations such as BP to use their brand in attempt at reputation laundering.  He goes on to describe BP's use of the brand as doing "anything to distract from the filth, corruption, and oppression that inevitably accompany its core activity." Overall the Tate has taken the steps necessary to ensure its survival in the 21st century. My take is that you can't blame The Tate as company for the apathy of politicians and the general public as it is simply trying to survive.

attention from the fi

lth, corruption and oppression that inevitably accompany its core

activity.