Marcel Dzama’s Une Danse des Bouffons, is a film that can be described as a “Dadaist Love Story.” It is currently part of an exhibit at the David Zwirner gallery along with related two and three dimensional work.

These works deal with many themes, among them “death.” Inside, I gravitated toward the long piece in the back of the room and, honestly, in the first couple of minutes this theme did not really stand out. It looked more like a circus; it was as if the people in the piece were in costume and doing all sorts of acrobatic acts.

Once I looked closer, I began to see the men with guns and the people surrendering. There is also a man holding a presumably dead man. I continued to walk around and look at the other pieces with this idea in mind. I then saw another piece:

Just some chess pieces, a chess board, and a beheaded human, head rolled away, but still close to the body. And another two fitting pieces:

Exploring death in art (or in anything for that matter) always puzzled me. Death is confusing, frightening, and eerie. I always approach the subject by, well, avoiding it altogether. I suppress any kinds of thoughts relating to it because it’s simply overwhelming. Many use the same approach as me. So, I admire artists like Marcel Dzama. To create works of art that have this kind of idea in them must mean the artist dwelled on it. They must have contemplated for hours on end in the preliminary process. Then they must have dealt with the idea while physically creating the projects. Just having the works in an exhibit continue to remind the artist of this theme. How do they do it!?

As I continued to contemplate this throughout the exhibit, I thought I stumbled upon a possible answer. Besides art being a way to cope with this difficult concept, there is also the idea that death makes way for the new. There must be death for birth to occur.