Ultimate life: Casting from death

3D Model

Plaster can directly capture life and is equally capable of documenting the end of life, that brief moment when life morphs into death. No artefact comes as close to achieving this as the death mask. From its physical contact with the face of a person who was alive only a moment ago, the death mask distils an allegedly authentic cast that confronts death with ‘ultimate life’, something which is utterly beyond its reach. In addition to a selection of master or gelatin models of death masks from the Gipsformerei, two original death masks from the Nationalgalerie, realized as busts, and exhibition copies of the famous plaster casts of the dead from Pompeii are presented here.

© SMB, Gipsformerei

3D-Digitisation, Virtual Exhibition, Post-Production: Studio Jester Blank