How do we mortals best face our terminus, demise, petering out or inevitable snuffage? With a doomed laugh, a graceful pirouette, a bumper of molten sin, a scornful and fabulous last hurrah. There are many convivial ways to prepare mentally to shuffle off: in this highly illustrated talk, waxwork artist of anatomy and mortality Eleanor Crook will offer examples from the dark history of morbid popular rites and entertainment. Funereal bars, Hellish dark rides, Chambers of Horrors and Dancehalls Macabre which our Ancestors (deceased) devised to tackle fear of the beyond. With partying and theatrics, they faced Death head – on (or off), with chutzpah, brio and panache. Eleanor will invite you to flounce in the face of the Grim Reaper and cavort your way to a life-affirming afterdeath as we celebrate the publication of Mel Gordon’s posthumous book Cabarets of Death, edited by Morbid Anatomy’s Joanna Ebenstein and published by Strange Attractor.
Eleanor Crook
Eleanor Crook is an artist inspired by a fear of mortality and intimations of immortality. She works internationally, exhibiting fine art and specializing in wax modeling and bronze sculpture, rediscovering forgotten art techniques and studying the dark masters from art history. Her aim is to create a troubling beauty, anatomical expressionism. She is artist in residence at the Gordon Museum of Pathology London, and her sculptures are in a number of public collections including the Science Museum London, the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and the Vrolik Museum Amsterdam. She has found her spiritual calling as European Attaché for Morbid Anatomy where she communicates Death Things for an eclectic and congruent community.
