This Saturday, May 23, Sydney Writers’ Festival and Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre will present Caitlin Doughty: Foreign Bodies, a free talk that takes you behind the curtain of the contemporary death industry.
As an up and coming death professional and star of the cult hit YouTube series Ask a Mortician, Caitlin is a skilled practitioner in flouting taboos.
Her New York Times bestselling memoir, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, chronicles her fixation with mortality and details her experiences working as a mortician.
With titles such as Human Taxidermy, Are Those Really My Mother’s Ashes? and Talking to Your Parents About Death, Caitlin’s YouTube series and blog The Order of the Good Death pushes the boundaries in the way that people perceive death.
“We are so glad to have this wonderful ongoing partnership with Sydney Writers’ Festival. This is a great opportunity for aspiring writers and the people of Liverpool to hear from a bestselling author,” Liverpool City Council Mayor, Ned Mannoun said of the talk.
Kiersten Fishburn, Director of Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, says Caitlin’s talk from 10.30am on Saturday will break a common taboo.
“This talk will complement the exhibition Death, giving audiences a deep insight into an experience we all must one day face.”
♦ The Death exhibition (May 23 – July 5) focuses on the ways in which we process and deal with death and mortality; practically, emotionally, physically and psychologically, rather than the moment or meaning of death.
It’s an unromantic look at some of the many facets of death including a suicide pact in the suburbs of Perth, subverting a fear of death with faux enlightenment, talking to the dead through white noise and memory, archive and grief.
Artists include Declan Apuatimi, England Banggala, Carla Cescon, Ronnie Djanbardi, Simon Gende, Nora Holland, Richard Lewer, Thomas Munkanomi, Tony Pilakui, Patrick Pound, Clementine Puruntatameri, Tracey Puruntatameri, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Helen Shelley, Laurens Tan and Hayley West with 1 million years, pictured below.
