Wild Gift II: Death and Performance

Death and Performance forms a study into issues of death and dying through a presentation of artworks in the mediums of live performance and performance-based video, and works in other media which respond performatively to the themes of dying, death, funerals, mourning and memorials.

The project is currently an ongoing piece of research. Please contact us for more information.

The project makes a strong link between the noticeable popularity of the subject matter amongst artists who work in the field of contemporary performance, and the idea – now common among social scientists and performance theorists alike – that death, dying and memorialising are things that are performed. The artists we will present continue the sensibility of Wild Gift I, taking a theatrical approach to the subject and emphasising the social, universal and cultural meanings of the events and practices they reference.

In September 2009 Wild Gift presented a paper on death in contemporary performance art and video at DDD9 – the Ninth International Conference on the Social Context of Death Dying and Disposal, Durham.

For more information on Wild Gift, see the rest of this site.

Wild Gift II Death and Performance is supported by Arts Council England

and has the following partners:

The Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath
The National Funeral Museum at T.Cribb and Sons, London
Netherlands Funeral Museum (Nederlands Uitvaart Museum Tot Zover)
Danielle Arnaud Gallery, London

Wild Gift is a member of the Association for the Study of Death and Society