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Description
Charcoal, 18”x24”

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Cryonics is an emerging branch of science in which a deceased body is preserved in a perfect temperature to prevent it from both the dangers of decay and freezing. This is done in the hopes that one day human science will become advanced enough to reanimate the dead.

Pictured is a bust of Stephen Decatur, American naval hero. Though his body has long since decomposed, I wanted to experiment with the idea of what would happen to him if he had been a participant of successful cryonics. The above is a portrait of his soul, and what would happen to the soul if his body were to be reanimated. Is there an afterlife? Are human “souls” important enough to constitute religion? If cryonics ever proved successful, and if the dead were to be reanimated, how would the ascended soul react?

I chose to illustrate a possible answer to these questions: the soul would exist in pieces, torn between its homes of the body and “the heavens”. Core signifiers of identity, such as eyes and the frontal lobe of the brain, will be lost or transmuted. The soul’s form will exist like hollow cast iron, seemingly strong yet prone to rusting away to nothing.

I plan to meditate on this motif more, and use it in an upcoming narrative to be translated into a book and a stop-motion animated film.

Description
Charcoal, 18”x24”

.

.

Cryonics is an emerging branch of science in which a deceased body is preserved in a perfect temperature to prevent it from both the dangers of decay and freezing. This is done in the hopes that one day human science will become advanced enough to reanimate the dead.

Pictured is a bust of Stephen Decatur, American naval hero. Though his body has long since decomposed, I wanted to experiment with the idea of what would happen to him if he had been a participant of successful cryonics. The above is a portrait of his soul, and what would happen to the soul if his body were to be reanimated. Is there an afterlife? Are human “souls” important enough to constitute religion? If cryonics ever proved successful, and if the dead were to be reanimated, how would the ascended soul react?

I chose to illustrate a possible answer to these questions: the soul would exist in pieces, torn between its homes of the body and “the heavens”. Core signifiers of identity, such as eyes and the frontal lobe of the brain, will be lost or transmuted. The soul’s form will exist like hollow cast iron, seemingly strong yet prone to rusting away to nothing.

I plan to meditate on this motif more, and use it in an upcoming narrative to be translated into a book and a stop-motion animated film.