“People formulate their attitude to death in various ways,but the masks and death are always in association.”(2) In theseprojects the creation of the double is included by casting theauthor’s body, an act characteristic for death mask creation.Since Etruscians and the Romans afterwards, this technique hasbeen practiced by using wax. The mask of the dead serves forpreserving his identity, but also for sealing his separation fromthe living. (3)

In the projects “Remain” and “Thalamos”we arrive to another point - the cast is of a living body and thedoubles are left to the (un)grace of the natural decay processes(the wax is melting, the dough crushes, crumbles, molders).Consequently, we have reached this situation:

death mask
casted of dead body
the physical body decays
the casted body remains

___________________

doubles
casted of alive body
the physical body remains
the casted body decays


Obviously, this is an inverse process of the creation of deathmasks, so maybe, instead of the death we could think about thereviving process or (because there is a certain facing of deathin these works) passing through the process of death for the sakeof regeneration, thus we come to the idea of initiation.

The death issue is evident in this cycle of three projects.

The body’s position in this cycle reminds of the one at themoment of death’s agony (characteristic for elementaryaccidents such as earthquakes, fire, lava or plane accidents),but at the same time of the fetus in the mother’s womb.Although it is not an embryo form but the one of a grown upfemale body, we have in mind the old alchemist idea: “Reallylives the one who is born of his own womb.”, so we are talkingabout the spiritual, not physical birth.

The secret room in the project “Thalamos” hasdouble meaning, as a place of initiation and a place ofmetamorphosis. The last room in the “labyrinth” of Cifte Amamis the place the “beetle” has chosen to hide itself in orderto make its transformation - the room where the installationtakes place and the visitors enter. However, the secret room/wombis the cast of dough as well, where the author was hidden - ashelter from the curious eyes. Her individual act in this“room” could be attended/entered only by herself. Thecreation of the mysterious room (as an installation in the spaceor as the dough object) determine the creative act as an act ofprotective cover (towards the outside world) and as a place ofspiritual transformation, too. As the caterpillar chooses asecret place to make its silk cover due to the need of physicaltransformation, so does the author find this secret room for thesake of the spiritual transformation. The process of lightningand extinguishing the light directs to the reminding of theexistence of death - flesh, a view towards death, because we arewitnesses of the body’s/form’s decay and its replacement bythe spiritual/light. But, the phases could be understood asalternative change of birth and death.

The death as a part of the process of initiation istherefore evident.

At the other hand, this act reminds us of the frequent act ofthe old customs - the double means substitute (instead of aliving individual, a dull of plants is sacrificed - put on fire;anthropomorphic breads that are eaten afterwards)? Perhaps thismeans an unconscious fear of death - the double is offeredas a substitution of man? If the casting of the death mask sealsthe separation of the dead from the living, according to theinverse process - the separation of the dead is sealed here.

Or, as in the imitative magic (wodoo magic), the wax double isdestroyed in order to cause destruction of the real individual.Could we think about the tendency towards death inthis case?

Why is the double created in these works?

If we think about the double as a continuous presence while aman lives, an archaic opinion of the existence of the death orbelieving in the existence of the double after the death of aperson (According to the theory of the double by Edgar Moren),then, in the projects “Thalamos” and “Remain”there are attempts for murdering the double (the double ismelting/decomposed). This leads to the negation of the double ornegation of the existence of the death. The double is not changedsolely in the project “Androgyny”. The death is aguardian angel and an evil spirit in the same time. (4)

There is a very specific relation of the author to her workwhile the artwork/project is created - situation of entiremelting with the work, identifying, self-dying in order the workto be “born”, a process that reminds of the female action ofbirth giving. (5)

An alchemists said that the (art) practice was undivideablefrom the theory (spiritual); the art is neither in inferior, norin superior position. Actually, there is a relation of deepinteraction with the real life of the author, her spiritual worldand her artwork.

The death appears as an element in the interpretation of the artas a question of death and life.

1.Micena’s crypts are an example of the general geography of the land of dead. There is at first a transit which leads down (dromos), a narrow aperture (stomion, “mouth”), and a high, wide, grave room (thalamos, “the bride room”). The grave room is a kind of womb into the earth, where the dead person enters in order to wait for the rebirth.
2.Oto Bihalji Merin, The Great Masks
3.ibid
4.“…the primitive people felt the death as a benefit (because it brings immortality) and as a loss (because it causes mental shock). Nothing is more contradictory than the emotions and feelings which the death release.” Edgar Moren
5.“The woman works (creates) in a way similar to the creating of a child in her organism. She collects the needed elements (materials), places them in closed space and with the influence of the active elements (fire, sun, heat, forces incorporated into the material), places them into the process of slow restructuring - perfecting that lasts for a precisely determined time. his how the child is created in a woman, but she raises plants or cooks food (especially the one that is ready after a longer period of time) by the same principle,” Nikos Causidis

Iskra Dimitrova

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Iskra Dimitrova
Born 1965 in Skopje, Macedonia. Graduated fromFaculty of Philosophy in 1987 and Academy of Fine Arts in Skopjein 1990. 1993 Arts Link residency program in Madison, USA. Multimedia projects, video art and installations.