In our last Kick-About, herman de vries prompted us to collect, examine and arrange the materials of the natural world. This week, we enter the ossuary, and consider the strange and sometimes unsettling possibilities of what remains after life. As always, the works that follow were made in a short time. For all previous editions of The Kick-About, go here.
Nel Spence
“I was lucky enough this past week to have already planned a trip to Prague, and by extension, a tour to Kutná Hora and the Sedlec Ossuary, so it would have been silly to pass up this opportunity to get involved with The Kick-About again.
The ossuary is home to the bones of an estimated 40,000–70,000 people, arranged into pyramids and a chandelier, as well as a coat of arms. Photography is strictly banned — though a search on any social media platform will show a number of “influencers” twirling and smiling in the chapel.
At the base of one of the pyramids, there are a number of skulls next to each other. I found myself staring at one in the centre and caught my brain “filling in the gaps”, so to speak, as out of the corner of my eye, I felt there were several fully formed faces staring back at me. A quick glance was enough to confirm that these vessels were still very much empty, and it was this that inspired my sketch.”
“Memento mori”
Charly Skilling
“You nearly always learn something new when you start exploring a Kick-About prompt, and this one is no exception. First, I learnt quite a bit about the ancient and medieval Kingdom of Ossory, which existed for a thousand years or so in the west of Ireland.
Second, I learnt how to spell ‘ossuary’.
And third, I learnt that Britain’s largest collection of human bones is housed in the crypt of St Leonard’s Church in Hythe, just a few miles away from us. And their website is full of photos of bones – thigh bones, jaw bones, ribs and skulls. I particularly liked two skulls that were leaning together. Rather as if in a selfie for their Facebook page. So I drew them – twice. Once in pencil and once in pastels.
I’d have done more had I had time. But I’d taken up too much time reading about the Kingdom of Ossory.“
Tom Beg
“I wanted to try and create some abstract spinal-like bone structure things, but in attempting to do so I may have possibly just ended up with what appears to be this year’s Christmas tub of Twiglets covered in white paint.”
James Randall
“A little crypt conga!”
Kerfe Roig
“Since the only collage box I have is the cosmic one, I decided, why not do cosmic skulls? They started to look like aliens, so I went full alien. We do seem to imagine aliens with bones for the most part. So, of course, they would have skulls, right?”
Phil Gomm
“I didn’t quite finish this. I’m nearly there, so I’m sharing as far as I got. Directly inspired by a trip to the Ossuary at Hythe, the story is about a few things: relics of the past and getting old.”
Read the extract here
philgomm.com / behance.net/Phil_Gomm
Next time, we’ll be picking up the pieces after an almighty bang, and seeing what happens when destruction becomes a work of art.
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