Art as Ethnography

One of my first classes in graduate school at Monmouth University, New Jersey, was entitled "Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion".  It was a class exploring themes in world religions such as shamanism, death, and ritual.  Having a strong interest in folklore, mythology, and religion, the class was very appealing. For the final project we had to conduct an ethnography investigating a topic from the class and portray it visually.

I choose to explore the themes of Life and Death as understood by religious and medical specialists. I do not endorse or discredit any particular religions or medical views.  As a student, I thought exploring the difference between these groups would be interesting.  These two fields of expertise are often pinned against each other and are said to be in opposition.  What I found was that they tend to have many things in common and share many views.

My project concept was a set of suitcases placed on a beach.  Into these cases would be placed symbolic representations determined during conversations with religious and medical specialists.  One suitcase symbolized life and the other death. The two cases represent death (the one with the white fabric) and life (with the toys and photos spilling out).


 Religious specialists used intangible ideas to explain life: joy, hope, happiness, and peace. They characters interpersonal relationships come first from our relationship with God. Medical specialists emphasized the importance of friends and family for life. They often said they felt most alive when children were born, traveling with friends and families, marriages, and graduations. To symbolize this I packed pictures of friends and family, letters, postcards, children's toys, marriage photos and invitation, and graduation attire into the case.

The religious specialists emphasized the repetition of symbolism throughout life. White as a color of purity that makes everything equal. It is worn at baptisms, weddings and funerals. Death is not the end but a continuation into a new sort of life. The medical specialists disagree strongly; they often used words like: old, deprecated, hopeless, and sad to describe death. They also spoke about the kinds of death: sudden and lingering and how these impacted the family. I placed butterflies and flowers to symbolize fragility and age. There is also a toy cannon for war to represent physical death.

 Life and death are not mutually exclusive categories for these specialists. Both groups talked about a spiritual death where a person had lost the will to live or did not experience the true meaning of life.