Spirit & Dust Opening Reception — An Art Exhibition on Death & Dying

Living is a daily conversation with death, and through art, we continue that dialogue with mortality, loss, and our own humanity.
About this Event

Celebrate the opening of the exhibition with the artists and enjoy light refreshments. The performance by Michael J. Morris will take place from 5–7 p.m. throughout the lower gallery—feel free to stop and observe as you explore the exhibition.
“Death is a Dialogue between / The Spirit and the Dust,” writes poet Emily Dickinson. Living is a daily conversation with death, and through art, we continue that dialogue with mortality, loss, and our own humanity. In Spirit & Dust, artists working across various disciplines—from photography and sculpture to poetry and dance—seek to create space for care and connection in confronting questions of death and dying. What do we gather from our grief? How is this knowledge embodied, and what can art provide for this relationship? What can death teach us about what it means to be alive?

stone, bone, bruise, and breath is a durational performance created and performed by Michael J. Morris. A body and a large piece of limestone move together through the gallery in subtle and quietly shifting configurations. Inspired in part by the widespread tradition of marking the graves of the dead with stones, it is a dance between what is fleeting and what is enduring, the limited time of living and dying along with the deep geological time of the more-than-human world. The preparation and performance of the piece is also an extended meditation on the ways that what we carry—including our grief—changes us, increasing some capacities while also diminishing others.
Curated by and

Participating Artists: Kristina Arnold, Mary Jo Bole, Michelle Burdine, Diane Callahan, Elvira Clayton, Barbara Fant, Ton’nea Green, Kari Gunter-Seymour, Dana Lynn Harper, Ian Hersko, Gee Horton, Laura Larson, Tracy Longley-Cook, Michael J. Morris, Christian O’Keeffe, Paul O’Keeffe, Chantal Wnuk, Melissa Vogley Woods

Support for this project comes from the Mellon Foundation through The Ohio State University Office of Academic Affairs.
Promo Image Art by Michelle Burdine. Promo Design by Nancy Hohl.
Visiting Urban Arts Space

50 W. Town St., Ste. 130
Columbus, OH 43215
Located in the historic Lazarus Building in downtown Columbus.

Admission to our exhibitions and programs is free!

View this map for parking garage options, with street parking on Rich, Front, and Wall Street, or go to our Accessibility page for bike or bus directions.

• Columbus Commons Parking Garage (Always has ample parking on the upper floors)
• Ohio Statehouse Parking Garage (Enter from westbound Broad Street or Third Street—we recommend this garage when accessibility is a concern)
• Riffe Center Parking Garage (Enter from Front Street)