- from Vienna Burial Museum by Suzanne Dechnik
Photograph by the author.
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There is something stirring about the actual artifacts of death -- perhaps this is the same kind of feeling that the devout have for relics of the holy and/or famous -- that forms a connection. I would have liked to touch any of the rich velvets and fine needlework on the shrouds for sheer tactile pleasure, or any of the ornaments used in the funeral ritual, or the ornaments that adorn coffins, the coffins themselves and their ruched satin linings. I would have enjoyed caressing things that came in contact with the corpse -- if possible, skulls themselves. (I had a great time in the Paris catacombs.) Handling things imbued with the aura of death seems almost as if I can touch the wing of the Dark Angel when he isn't looking: perhaps as a rehearsal for my own death? Who knows? But I find, time after time, that I just have to do it.
- from Vienna Burial Museum by Suzanne Dechnik |
Photograph by the author. |