Artist Maynard searches for ‘British origin’ corpse

Nathan was going to sacrifice him for the “sins of the colonialists”

Tasmanian artist Nathan Maynard sent out a call asking a Briton to donate his body to him after death to make it part of an art project. The play-performance promises to be presented in November as part of the art festival in Hobart, the capital of the Australian state of Tasmania. The organizer of the festival – the local museum – has already approved the idea of ​​the author. Paradoxically, on the one hand, the artist promises to treat the corpse with care, on the other hand, he intends to use it as a sacrifice in the name of atonement for the sins of colonization.

Artist and writer Nathan Maynard decided in an unexpected way to remind that the remains of the indigenous peoples of Australia are kept in British museums to this day. And although since the 1990s they began to be returned to their homeland for burial and about 1,600 remains were taken out, many are still exhibited as exhibits or are in museum funds. So Nathan Maynard, a native of Tasmania’s palawas, is about to “sacrifice for past sins committed during colonization.” For this, he needed a corpse of “British origin.” It is not yet clear how exactly the idea will be implemented in practice and whether there will be volunteers who will agree to give their body after death for the sake of such art.

By the way, a few years ago, another artist Santiago Sierra was going to soak the flag of Great Britain in the blood of aborigines at an Australian festival to again recall the past sins of colonization. He invited donors to donate blood. There were no volunteers, moreover, the author was accused of insensitivity and an attempt to inflict psychological trauma on the indigenous peoples of the continent, after which the festival organizers apologized and abandoned the idea. “We have already lost enough blood,” the descendants of the natives commented on the idea.

So the installation with the corpse of a Briton performed by Nathan Maynard may also not take place. But, obviously, it will become a new reason for a discussion not only about the traumatic experience of history and its consequences, but also about how today, in the 21st century, it is correct to discuss the era of colonization and what forms are acceptable in this dispute. So far, the proposal sounds very absurd (especially in light of the fact that the artist writes that the idea came to him through a “virtue signal”). And the network has already appeared necro-memes.

Meanwhile, in Britain itself, a scandal has recently erupted due to a journalistic investigation, which proves that the royal dynasty was once related to the slave trade. Descriptions of the values ​​that Great Britain exported from the conquered colonies were also published there. In response, Britain’s newly enthroned King Charles III responded by ordering an investigation into the country’s colonial and slave-owning past, the results of which are likely not to be published soon. The study of archives can take several years. So the crown diplomatically got out of the situation. But the theme of the revision of the colonial heritage is still in the European air, taking on different, sometimes strange and bizarre forms, as in the case of the Tasmanian artist.