The art of death in an age of denial

Artists have always painted skulls and confronted mortality but now such work is more important than ever.
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As a culture, we are ​deeply uncomfortable with talking about death. Our urban lives protect us from animal cycles of life. The dying are shunted off to hospitals or nursing homes. Public rituals such as wearing black or keening have been replaced by brief funerals. Tears are private.

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Richard Watts is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM, and serves as the Chair of La Mama Theatre's volunteer Committee of Management. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, and was awarded the status of Melbourne Fringe Living Legend in 2017. In 2020 he was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize. Most recently, Richard was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Green Room Awards Association in June 2021. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts