'the young to the young, the old to the old, the living to the living, the dead to the dead'

outside it is grey.

horsemouth's friends are much exercised by a swiss artist who claims to be painting with the ashes of holocaust victims from majdanek (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majdanek_concentration_camp), of his 'work' he says the following "(it was) as if the ash contained energies or memories or 'souls' from people... people tortured, tormented and murdered by other people in one of the 20th Century's most ruthless wars". 

it is argued that this is wrong because it would be 'against the wishes' of the dead - initially it may seem that the dead are dead, they can have no say in the treatment of their remains, and 'their' ashes are merely ashes, disenchanted chemical. but the careful and respectful treatment of human remains in many cultures (and not just those 'of the book')  suggests that this is important for the living. the long, arduous and carefully structured process of burial or cremation is there to ensure a proper separation - to generate an acceptance of the departure of the animating spirit. these processes and materials are handled in the modern world by professionals and also and earlier by priests and relatives, concerns of taboo are replaced by concerns of hygene. but it is a mark of the breakdown of society if the dead lie unburied (and not just a the level of hygene) - they are both (to quote 'man of constant sorrow') 'sleeping in their graves'  awaiting the last judgement and risen again and living 'on god's golden shore' -  conversely if the dead were on display in bone chapels andmemento mori paintings, or if the remains are handled (some hindu practices), it is because the meaning of the practice is fixed by religious certainty - a certainty that now seems archaic to us. for these reasons the dead return and if they the dead return, as zombies seeking brains, or as ancestors bringing cargo, it is a cataclysmic event.

at majdanek itself 1,300 m³ of surface soil mixed with human ashes and fragments of bones  from the 79,000 victims (59,000 of whom were jews) was collected and turned into a large mound. in 1969 this was covered over with a concrete dome in a mausoleum designed by the architect wiktor tołkin. here the aim is clearly to memorialise and contain, to prevent further interference.

for these reasons the remains of the dead cannot be disenchanted, this is why this work of art is possible at all (no-one would be interested if he were painting with polyfilla) and why it is impossible - a world so sure in its disenchantment that art could redeem this material would be frankly terrifying to live in.

what has changed is the role of art - art has assumed the role of deciding the distribution of the things that formerly was the concern of religion and then of politics, it does this by means of play at lower levels of seriousness (and perhaps experiment at higher levels), by transgression of taboo, bringing into the gallery, into the painting, what should properly be kept out of it, and by taking art out into the realm of the streets and the political. in this art exactly matches the new spirit of capitalism - art as world spirit sanctifies the redistribution of mere matter and bodies below. 

horsemouth could conceed a parallel with the 'nuclear art' of james acord. horsemouth also remembers the artist jailed for violations of the anatomy act - for his keeping of parts of bodies from a morgue in his house. for these reasons some may be inclined to defend these paintings. one could point to Otto Freundlich - one of the artists included in the nazis' 1937 "degenerate art" exhibition - who died at majdanek. it may be that the artist is disabled and could point to the large numbers of the disabled killed particularly in the last year of the camp's operation  (he is not) or has some other proper connection. 

horsemouth finds this art, this transgression and his offers to explain it (if a ticket is purchased) deeply fucking tedious and deeply wrong, a continuation beyond death of the disrespectful treatment of holocaust victims as mere matter ('even the dead will not be safe if the enemy wins'), to attempt to make art out of this is just to continue the crime. horsemouth is not surprised however that he is a sound artist or composer -  it is typical of the 'feeble mindedness' that afflicts the field.

an apology and a return of the remains must be made.