ARTBEAT Issue 01 October 2016

ARTBEAT MAGAZINE
5
Festivals
Feature
Curse of the Floral Skull and
How Dia de los Muertos
came to AlC
by Jamie Lowe
It would be difficult not to notice the giant
flowery effigy of a human skull parked outside
of the Art Department on the 4th Floor of AIC.
Grinning, is perhaps the wrong word to use
when describing it’s expression, for it is quite
hard to discern any expression at all beneath the
blooms which carpet it. Yet there is something
about its general demeanor which suggests a
cheeky, impish quality; as if it were inwardly
enjoying a private joke beneath its abundant
coating of bright flowers.
Amy Lee, a DP2 student from last year, who was
the creator of this “Floral Skull” sculpture,
remembers this particular piece with fondness.
The days spent wrestling with giant sheets of
laminated styrofoam and the subsequent carving
of it (transforming her share of the DP2 Studio
into the what seemed like the inside of a shaken
snow-globe), followed by wading through a sea
of artificial roses for days. From this ambitious
undertaking, emerged a sculpture that is at
once (uncomfortably) cute and appealing and
quite sinister in its “memento mori” message. It
is after all a huge, candy-coated reminder of
death.
Not surprisingly then, has our “floral bogeyman”
become the harbinger of superstition, creepy
stories, rumors and myths whispered in the
corridors of AIC. For it is said that the most
terrible luck befalls those who dare to touch or
meddle with it’s flowers. Those who are
foolhardy enough to do this and worse; by
removing said flowers- have been sure to fall
upon hard times and the worst kinds of fortune.
By desecrating the “Floral Skull”, the miscreant
is immediately “cursed” by the dead, they say.
And what curses it espouses! The very nature of
these curses is as floral as the macabre head
which issues them. Daily, it’s utterances are
posted upon a small notice alongside it, which
serves a clear warning to the unwary. It
threatens such tragedies as: being cursed “to
forever smell like a Guangzhou bus driver’s
underwear”, or: “to witness a kitten dying
horribly in your neighborhood", if you are so
foolish as to touch its blooms. Lately, there is a
curious suggestion that this eccentric effigy has
Mexican sympathies, for it has recently cursed
it’s victims to: “bear children who look like
Donald Trump (but who are less charismatic and
very poor)”*.
A Mexican connection, indeed? We consulted
Amy Lee about this and sure enough, she had in
fact been inspired by the folk art produced
during a popular Mexican festival when creating
this piece. Could she be alluding to our skull
being linked with a very important Mexican
festival : “Dia De Los Muertos" (The Day Of
The Dead)? Coincidentally, Mexico has been
much-maligned by the very Republican
Presidential candidate who is mentioned by our
skull in the curse. Creepy? We at Artbeat think
so!
(Continued on Page 7)
*For more calaveraic curses turn to the back of Artbeat to the “Fun Section”.