Glen Pudvine
Xxijra Hii, 21 October - 19 November 2022
How to embalm a body according to Glen Pudvine
1. Nausea is the response of the human animal confronted by the waxy, lifeless folds of Skull, by now distorted far from its original plumpness. Suppress your revulsion as best you can while you splay it over an area of 385 x 103.5 cm, coating an entire wall of Xxijra Hii above eye level. It should appear prune-dry and green as the skin of an ageing sunbather after the sun has dipped behind a rock.
2. With a brush, spread a film of oil over the concha, helix and lobule in a spiral motion, ensuring that the silver earring is also coated, enough to bring out its shine. Dress the hair, saving enough oil for the handle of a favourite coffee mug, into which you can deposit the organs. Insert a small dinosaur as an accompaniment to the futility.
Glen Pudvine Author of Space and Time, oil on linen, 2022
3. Find a nostril. Extract from it enough liquid to coat the nose and lips. Apply liberally to the arm and massage until tender, then bend it to mask the body's sin. This done, soak everything in a large quantity of spinach juice.
Millions of years of sex and death, oil on linen, 2022
4. Do not forget your loved ones in utero. Make a well, separate their faces and pour in with a galaxy of amoeba to delay the process of decomposition. Under the right conditions they will persist for upwards of thirty million years. Set aside.
"Life is Perspective", Kendrick Lamar, oil on linen, 2022
5. On a nearby wall, display a charcoal portrait in the Faiyum style. It should show the body in the prime of life and express good cheer and alertness. Leave some food to sustain it on its journey and also ensure that there is a separate, larger offering to assuage the ravenous hunger and envy of any gods it might encounter on the way.
Birthday card, oil and sand on linen, 2022
6. Wipe down all surfaces. Turn on the lights. Allow respects to be paid for a period not exceeding thirty days, then seal off the body. Pray for its smooth transition into the next life, that it may find everlasting peace in a new and better home, and that it may continue to inspire our lives with the memory of its time with us. Long may it last.