Visiting the exhibit, “Death: Life’s Greatest Mystery”

Photo by Stephanie Levac

We wrote this blog post to share our thoughts about visiting the recent exhibit, “Death: Life’s Greatest Mystery,” at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum. The exhibit is originally from the Chicago Field Museum. We both found it especially impressive to have the word ‘death’ figure so prominently: the name of the exhibit was on a giant poster on the side of the museum and was widely advertised on social media. Headlining death does not happen very often, and we find that refreshing. We also found it important that each time we visited (three times between us), there were crowds of people of all ages, including many children.

Susan’s thoughts:

Prior to going, a friend commented to me that they felt the exhibit was a lost opportunity to talk about grief. What I experienced, however, was the opposite. I found that the exhibit centred grief, but without using the word. I was likely influenced by recently reading the book, This Party’s Dead: Grief, Joy and Spilled Rum at the World’s Death Festivals by Erica Buist. I was struck by her reflection that “This sense of having a continuing relationship with the dead is the nucleus of the death festivals…” This exhibit was definitely about ways in which death is observed and celebrated. I used to think of the ‘death positive movement’ [https://youtu.be/dVO37s6PAvA] and death-related festivals as not really including grief. And then I read Buist’s sentence, and it changed my outlook. I very much believe in the notion of ‘continuing bonds’: that death can change a relationship instead of ending it. I also believe that continuing bonds are a key aspect of grief. As a result, I moved through the exhibit seeing many of the displays as expressions of connections to the dead and therefore about grief.

Steph’s thoughts:

Death gives meaning to life, and in that way, humanity is always in relationship with it. Throughout the exhibit, I found myself thinking about humanity’s greater connection to death and how different cultures make sense of that. Many times over, I found myself immersed in a sense of wonder at the beauty with which different peoples connect to death and grief. From funerary rights from ancient times to the more modern displays, I came to think about death as the mirror for grief. Looking upon death, facing it straight on without denial or hesitation, allows us to feel grief and the many other emotions it brings along with it.

The bringing together of so many different presentations of grief and death was an emotional journal for me. For example, as I moved through the exhibit I could hear the joyous jazz music of New Orleans funerals, reminding me – even as I looked upon things that brought great sadness, like the Palestinian serving set – that grief brings joy as well as sadness. Intense emotions were also captured in the art pieces that reflected the beauty of death. The most striking was the Zen Buddhist watercolour paintings, Moral Illustrations on the Transience of Life, which depicted the physical stages the body goes through after death.

Steph and Susan:

The exhibit invited in all our senses. Biological aspects included displays about what happens to decomposing bodies, including smells. The New Orleans funereal marching band mentioned above could be heard in the background throughout almost the whole exhibit. There was a film that brought the viewer through the cycle of death and rebirth of the plants on the forest floor. Throughout there were warning of any portions of the visit that might be difficult. An enclosure surrounded the Zen Buddhist paintings in order to ensure that people saw the warning provided before they saw any images. Interactive elements were also included: visitors could answer surveys and find out immediately how their answers lined up with those of other visitors. The final wall at the exit included QR codes for more information and an opportunity to place a leaf-shaped sticky note on an image of a giant tree, with instructions that stated, “Memory brings life to death” and asked about sights, sounds and smells.

The exhibit also demonstrated how humans, through the various ways death is observed, are connected and care about one another. Other animals are connected as well. Part of the exhibit provided examples of how whales and other creatures grieve their dead.

Overall, the exhibit tackled a very important subject, and the curation was excellent. As we know at Grief Matters, we need to have more conversations, both private and public, about both death and grief. This exhibit contributed to these conversations.