Date: Monday, January 30
Time: 7 pm EST (NYC time)

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When we think of morgues today, we imagine discreet, medical spaces; waiting rooms between the worlds of the living and the dead. But from the very beginning, these institutions - and their anonymous dead - have also acted as a powerful creative muse, attracting, repelling, and ultimately inspiring a vast array of artists for over two centuries.

Ranging from anatomy paintings and death masks to gothic literature, photography, conceptual art and even chocolate moulds, this talk will delve into the complex relationship between the morgue as an institution, and the artistic, creative and aesthetic output it has stimulated, all the way back to the earliest days of the infamous Paris morgue. In doing so, we can begin to explore the myriad of meanings - and ethical, moral and legal dilemmas - that emerge from using the anonymous dead as a muse, both historically and into the present day.

Catriona Byers is a writer, photographer and historian specializing in urban death, policing, medicine, and photography from the nineteenth-century to the present day. She’s currently working on a PhD at King’s College London, focusing on the morgues of Paris and New York from 1864-1914, alongside research projects relating to crime scene photography and American pauper cemeteries. She divides her time between London, Paris and New York, and moonlights as a photographer and food stylist alongside her historical research. For more of Catriona’s work, you can follow her on Instagram and Twitter @heymorguegirl, or visit her website.

Image: Jeffrey Silverthorne, Home death, silver slippers, 1973