TABOO - TRANSGRESSION - TRANSCENDENCE

Unlike the microbiome, which has been described as working in symbiosis with living systems, the necrobiome is a living community of micro and macro-organisms haunting bodies and materials beyond the boundary given to define “life”. The Necrobiome and the Thanatomicrobiome that comprises it microbial agents actively dismantle the material composition of life as we knew it, signaling to cultural notions of the abject and putrefaction[1], [2].

However, the necrobiome remains an undeniably important framework for understanding the complex and shifting network of interactions and relationships that living organisms have beyond the anthropocentric boundary of death. From whale fall to compost, the necrobiome exists all around us and plays a crucial role in planetary cycles.

Consulting both scientific and cultural practitioners working with these facets of death, “Dust to Dust” attempts to examine the value systems projected onto death, the meaning death has in life cycles (micro and macro), and the rituals that exist around death (both scientific and cultural). Exploring the role of planetary forces and the needs of overlapping systems of living entities that permeate the boundary between life and death, “Dust to Dust” offers artistic mediation on the cycling of carbon on our planet. 

[1] Kristeva, J., 2024. Powers of horror: An essay on abjection. Columbia University Press.

[2] Nakas, K., 2013. Putrefied, Deliquescent, Amorphous: The 'Liquefying' Rhetoric of Ugliness. In: A. Pop and M. Widrich, ed., Ugliness: The Non-Beautiful in Art and Theory. I.B.Tauris.