Parkinson, C,, 2013.

Present-Tense

In the face of our own mortality, what relevance do
the contemporary arts have: moreover, what might
artists and art tell us about our own attitudes to life
and death in a society where we are told wellbeing
is dependent on happiness and that like any other
commodity, health can be purchased. Through
an exploration of artists encountering their own
mortality and by unpicking secular notions of the
numinous, this essay will set the scene for a new
dialogue in arts and health, one that attempts to
understand how art might inform our attitudes to
mortality.

MORTALITY: Death and the Imagination