I find myself caught in a train of thought, lately. So lets continue this, shall we? Sex is all over the place, cute is all over the place and so are skulls. It can be pretty tiring. Be it porn, Hello Kitty or Ed Hardy. And worst of all, it always sells and always has and always will. We (or I, in this case) can complain as much as we want to but there is no denying the fact that these are topics that affect our very human existence. My choice of word arrangement is no coincidence either. After sex comes cute and after cute comes death (or skulls, a little later) - or should the order rather be cute, sex and then skulls? But I digress. 

Now, take a look at Jim Skull. An artist from Paris who is all over the place as well. His subject matter is as unambiguous as his moniker. Skulls. In contrast to all my usual resentment I was surprised to find my own skull nodding in agreement. It was not only the incredible craftsmanship that I saw in every one of his installations but even the form of presentation persuaded me. Everything just falls into place.

Wait, even the form of presentation? Well, yeah. But did I not write something about how pictures taken in a black/white box remove the context that might tell us about the background of the sculpture? Sure, but for every rule there is an exception, they say. In this particular case the skulls are presented as if they were masks from a distant culture. Walk into any museum of natural history and anthropology of your choice and you will find rooms after rooms that are dark black boxes with an occasional spotlight that adds to the drama of the pieces on display. So, at least for me, even these simple pictures tell a story. Not only about the inherent fascination of death that is visible here but also about the way we choose to present the artifacts of other cultures. We may claim that these are just facts on display but then again, a good show goes a long way to keep our attention, doesn’t it? And I am pretty sure I would still be amazed even if these skulls were not presented so cleverly.