With stained glass windows casting an eerie glow over sculptures, floors, walls and furniture, an old church made an appropriate setting for an art exhibition about death.
When independent curator Marian Casey conceived the idea for Death Rights, her show of 13 artists working through various media on the subject of death, remembrance and the afterlife, she had Communion, the newly christened former Alamo Methodist Church on South Alamo Street, in mind.
Now on view in the once-sacred space are artworks contemplating permanence and impermanence, honoring intergenerational relationships, facing the moment of passing from life to death while considering the legacies left behind, and regarding humanity’s fraught relationship to a planet in peril.
A San Antonio native based in London, what inspired Casey to curate Death Rights was “how many different artists are engaging with the politics of death and grief and legacy, and how we can kind of reshape and reclaim our relationship to death and remembrance.”
Who gets acknowledged
Casey was already familiar with the artwork of Adriana Corral, born in El Paso and onetime San Antonio resident now living in Los Angeles. Corral’s Untitled (Campo Algodón series) of 2013, made from Human Rights International court documents related to the murders of eight girls in Juarez in 2001, spurred Casey to select other artworks based on similar subjects.
“The erasure of those crimes and making work around that was really interesting to me, thinking about what types of deaths get acknowledged and what ones don’t,” Casey said.
Other San Antonio artists in the show are Joe Harjo, who currently has a solo exhibition, Indian Removal Act II: And She Was, on view at the Contemporary at Blue Star, and Angela Guerra Walley, represented by a reprise of her 2023 Artpace installation We Are Quilted Together and a new Day of the Dead-themed work (All The Ways Your Loved Ones Are Preparing You) For Their Absence.
Other artists in the show hail from Chicago, Houston, Montreal, New York and San Diego.
Public events
Casey said the exhibition grew out of conversations with lifelong friend Maura Bobbitt, a student of mortuary science and a passionate advocate for alternatives to standard funeral and burial practices.
Bobbitt has contributed to Death Rights with a slate of public programming including a Last Meal Book Club this Sunday, a Pop-Up Arrangements Workshop on March 9 and a Grief Yoga session with yoga teacher Lesley Ramsey on March 16.
“[Bobbitt] taught me a lot about the ways that we can work to reshape our relationship to death and grief, and the work that needs to be done to kind of make the funeral industry more equitable and community-oriented and environmentally friendly,” Casey said.
Casey acknowledged that death is a difficult subject for many, but said, “If we can … become a little bit more comfortable with talking about it … we can be better community members and be more supportive of each other in periods of loss and grief.”
During the Feb. 24 opening reception, tattoo artist Alex Longoria performed multidisciplinary artist Evan Paul English’s tattooing installation Gathering. Willing participants received foot tattoos depicting two eyes connected by a single flowing line, based on the design art of Scottish Art Nouveau pioneer Frances Macdonald. In a brief statement about his involvement in the piece, Longoria said he considered his work “tattoo medicine,” connected to his ancestors.
Summing up her goals for the monthlong exhibition, Casey emphasized that the human awareness of mortality inspires creativity and thoughtfulness.
“If this show encourages people to think a little bit more about how we interact with death and work towards interacting with it in an abundant and creative way, … then I’ll feel like it’s achieved something,” Casey said.
Death Rights runs through March 23 at Communion, open to the public Wednesdays through Sundays from noon to 7 p.m. with free admission. Anyone interested in attending the free public events mentioned above is encouraged to RSVP through the website of exhibition sponsor Apexart.
This article has been updated to clarify that Marian Casey is based in London.
