Art as the key....................death matters

There is of course, a difference between privacy and being alone, between spiritual integrity and feeling atomized. In a secular culture, art provides a key to the door between these worlds, if not the kingdom once promised us in the Bible (let alone by Facebook). It can also pre-empt the dangers of premature withering, of being dead inside long before we are buried or burned. In reminding us of our internal universe, of that person, art marks us with mystic residues and consolations and a degree of consciousness that dilates our being with what might be described as a renewing vividness. Giving up the ghost - the need to negotiate death's place in our lives' led Mark Mordue to ask how artists deal with this most fundamental matter. Weekend Australian Review 9.4.11