Encountering Corpses (Part 3)

The Heavenly Bodies exhibition at Sacred Trinity (March 28 to April 10) also features the work of Sue Fox, lecturer of Film and Media Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University. Having photographed corpses for her book Post Mortem, Sue's work could be said to be both shocking and touching. It will be interesting for each viewer to experience it close at hand. Separated from the subject by time and space, the viewer will still be transported to the mortuary slab to confront their own mortality.

When I had the chance to hold Sue's book in my hand, I was surprised at my own reaction. This was not even close to feelings of horror, but more an unprompted soul-searching tenderness. I highly recommend to make time to visit the exhibition and see the work up close on the walls. Looking at a picture on a computer screen does not do it justice. See you there!

Encountering Corpses (Part 2)

Paul Koudounaris is a self-confessed necrophile (figuratively, not literally), author and photographer from Los Angeles. His passion is an interest in the dead, especially charnel houses and ossuaries. Named after a sign in the Parisian catacombs, his first book The Empire of Death (2011) explores the history and context of these many and varied deathly resting places, from all over the world. A truly gothic tome if ever there was one.

His latest book, Heavenly Bodies (2013), explores further one particular subject - that of skeletons found in Roman Catacombs several centuries ago, presumed to have be martyrs. Their journey through nunneries, where they were dressed in ornate clothing and jewellery, ended with them residing in various churches across Europe and venerated for their assumed history. There's obviously a lot more to the story than just that, but I would encourage you to buy the book to find out. It contains a wealth of very interesting information and  gloriously coloured photographs. Paul has done a great job uncovering these hidden intrigues.

In this clip, you can hear the man himself talking about some of his experiences. Come along to the Heavenly Bodies exhibition at Sacred Trinity, running from Friday March 28th to Thursday April 10th, to see his photographic work exhibited for the first time outside of the USA (along with artistic responses by some members of SUB).

Encountering Corpses (Part 1)

Manchester Metropolitan University has a program called HiP, Humanities in Public, through which they host a series of events for the public, allowing them to get a taste of academia and further areas of personal interest. These are proving really popular and are taking us on some really interesting topics, particularly for those in sub cultures. For example, in January they ran Day of the Droogs (related to the Anthony Burgess classic book A Clockwork Orange, later committed to film by Stanley Kubrick) and in February there was Women in Philosophy.

March brings a few more themes, one of which is Encountering Corpses. This series of events will include a day of speakers examining topics such a burial, commemoration and ritual, curation and tourism (e.g. the dead in museums) and art, aesthetics and ethics. Looking at modern attitudes to the dead, this should prove to be a very interesting day. There will also be walking tours of Manchester's Southern Cemetary.

Lastly, there will be an art exhibition (entitled Heavenly Bodies) housed in SUB's home, Sacred Trinity, for a fortnight from the end of March (March 28 to April 10). Although not related to SUB directly, there will be a few SUB members exhibiting new works as part of this exhibition. I will tell you more about it next week...

Cthulhu Christmas

by Richard Trouncer

Over the Christmas period I particularly enjoyed listening to Cthulhu Carols while playing Arkham Horror. The combination of unspeakable, mind bending horror and lovely Christmas carols takes the sting out of Cthulhu and the nauseating out of Christmas. I'd suggest listening to them while reading the rest of this blog.

For those of you unfamiliar with it, Cthulhu, and the associated mythos, was created over a century ago by H.P. Lovecraft, a horror writer. Personally, I find his style difficult to read and the stories a little repetitive, but the world of horror he created is genius. We are sitting on a thin veneer of normality, and underneath, just waiting to break through, are horrors who would consume everything in a moment, whose shadow would drive you to madness, whose existence proves everything meaningless.

Time for a non sequitur, but hang with me. Those who study the bible in universities generally accept a changing understanding of the devil within the bible. Initially the devil is not present, evil is chaos opposed by God, and the devil changes from a prosecuting angel into an opponent of God personifying moral wickedness. In many ways the former scares me more, a meaningless chaos that the Cthulhu mythos taps into. It scares me because it seems as I get older to be an increasingly rational way to view the world.

When I see natural disasters, disease and arbitrary suffering I find belief in God hard to hold onto. A world without meaning, where stuff just happens and we have little control or ability to direct even our own local environment, seems far more likely than a God suffused universe where love is the basis of existence. In comparison, an evil force wanting to destroy, sow misery and hate seems curiously reassuring - at least it can be understood.

I know suggesting God versus meaninglessness as the only two views is simplistic, that atheism and philosophy would suggest that I'm being naive. They're probably right, I've always struggled with postmodernism. But for me it feels this way sometimes. Holding onto my faith in God - love, hope and all that is best, is a struggle against meaninglessness. Against despair. Against Cthulhu and all his Christmas Carols.

Inked

This week I'm wondering what tattoos you may have that have some relation to your faith. Or what you will get if you are planning to get a faith-related tattoo? Or why you don't have one.

Some Christians think that getting tattoos is not compatible with the faith and some just don't like the whole tattooing industry, what they think tattoos say about the wearer. However, there are some that like the style and the statement it makes and want to proclaim their faith boldly in this particular way.

Tattooing is a strong part of a number of sub cultures and it is common to see people wearing ink that remembers their loved ones, promotes their favourite bands or characters, shares favourite sayings and so on. What do you think about the issue?

It's in the blood

For those of you not able to make it or who are intrigued and for those who attended that may want to revisit the experience, we have included here the details of what happened at the blood gathering. Part way through, we also watched a short video from the Royal Institute that gave some basics about blood.

See you soon, for the next gathering.

A taste of blood

Saturday went really well and we had a very interesting couple of hours talking about blood. Claire will write up her notes to share on this so you have a better idea of what went on. However, to give you a sneak preview, here's a couple of shots and Claire's recipe for drinkable blood, used as part of the service:

This is a very loose guide and you may want to alter things depending on taste and preference…

- 2 punnets of summer fruits (raspberries, blackberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants, etc) - frozen are usually slightly cheaper than fresh
- red coloured fruit juice (Claire used cranberry and raspberry)
- small pot of honey (Claire used Acacia honey, a small pot that only contains 2-3 teaspoons of honey, like you might get at a B&B breakfast)

1. Take your thawed or fresh fruit and blitz with a blender adding fruit a little at a time until it looks properly liquified
2. Pour the result through a sieve into a large bowl/jug - this may need a bit of persuading with a spoon, as the liquid will still be very thick. You should just be left with the fruit skin and seeds remaining behind in the sieve
3. Add the fruit juice to thin to a desired consistency
4. Add honey to add some sweetness and lend some blood-like viscosity

That should probably give you around 600-800 ml of 'blood'. Ours was then poured into a conical jug for a chemical-experiment feel and then distilled into test tubes for each of our SUB attendees to carry round with them and use at varying points in the afternoon. You might want to try syrup rather than honey, or different combinations of fruit and different types of fruit juice, but should end up with a slow-pouring liquid of deep red colour. Have fun turning your kitchen into a mad chemistry lab :)