TO PUTREFACTION – Martin Bladh & Karolina Urbaniak
TO PUTREFACTION 2013 by Martin Bladh & Karolina Urbaniak
Martin Bladh text Karolina Urbaniak photography Foreword by Jeremy Reed Putrefaction: disintegration of biological material (e.g. proteins) through the operation of microbes, disintegration of corpses (cadaver); the agents of putrefaction distinguish themselves partly through a (foul) distinctive smell: hydrogen sulphide, marcaptans, indole, skat-ole, phenol etc. Also appearing: methane, fatty acids, basic substances, usually poisonous, like neurine, putrescine, cadaverine and muscarine. I chose to believe that several known (and less known artist) have turned the aesthetic destruction inwards by staging poetic suicides as a closure to a mayor body of work. Their lives would be read like straight lines, their works indicated as dots upon these lines which reach contextual perfection in death: the last masterpiece. The protagonist life becomes a real life drama, his action, work and achievements are enacted as chapters in a novel or tracks on a concept album. The final act of self-annihilation would be his last sublime creation. I fantasise about earning my own pedestal in this private pantheon of beauty. – Martin Bladh
