Flat Death: Edgar Martins & Jordan Baseman [ Exhibition ]

A few weeks ago I went to Liverpool and visited the Flat Death exhibition at the Open Eye Gallery on Mann Island. The exhibition which runs from the 15th Jan - 3rd April explores how we deal with death as a society and individually through a series of photographic projects by artists Edgar Martins and Jordan Baseman.

The Gallery presented 2 series of work side by side: 'Edgar Martins attempts to understand our relationship to death and photography's role in the process through a variety of images. Jordan Baseman's exhibition of memorial images sits within a long tradition of photography being used by families to remember their loved ones after they have passed.'

Overall I found the exhibition really interesting as although the subject matter was pretty dark and disturbing, many of the photographs were very unusual and aesthetically pleasing such as the decaying banana skin with the story of the deceased bee keeper and the bright pink photograph of a forest shot on infra-red film. The Photographs in the gallery are paired with suicide notes, forensic evidence and X-rays of fatal injuries creating juxtapositiob between the personal (what we choose to leave behind) and what will actually be left behind (a bloody rag, twisted car metal, rotten piece of fruit).