Whole 2021

This mixed media piece 'Whole' by Jason Limon from the 20th century is giving me life and death in equal measure. I love the division of the canvas into three parts, the symbolic hands—one reads "we live" and the other "we die"—bookend the central image of the skull. I can only imagine how the artist must have been thinking about our existence when they composed the piece, and the memento mori. There is something about the way the paper cut-outs are arranged that makes me think of found objects. Perhaps Limon was using the piece to reflect on memory and the fragility of life. I'm reminded of the surrealists who are obsessed with a visual play on words, here it's the skull as a container for a clock, a star, and filigree. The artist has clearly been thinking about our journey from birth to death and back again. I find this both thought-provoking and comforting because the cyclical aspect of nature is a reminder that the artistic impulse is not fixed but always changing.