Day of the Dead Exhibit: A Celebration of Living

Exhibit brings together photography, local art and Mexican traditions

TOPICS FOR THIS STORY: GLOBAL, ARTS, CAMPUS NEWS

October 3, 2012 | By Ezgi Ustundag

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Photos of the Day of the Dead celebration in Mexico are on exhibit in the Jameson Gallery on East Campus.

DURHAM, NC - Each year on the first day of November church bells across Mexico toll at 3 p.m. to announce the arrival of the dead. For the next 24 hours Mexicans celebrate life -- lighting fireworks, playing music and eating food and candy with their deceased relatives.

The Day of the Dead, or Dio de los Muertos, is the most popular holiday in Mexico. On Tuesday night, members of the Duke and Durham community attended a reception and photography exhibit opening dedicated to the holiday. The event was held at the Fredric Jameson gallery in the Friedl Building on East Campus.

The exhibit, which runs through Nov. 6, features photos of the Day of the Dead festivities in Oaxaca, Mexico, two tissue-paper images created by Durham elementary school students, and a traditional family altar. The reception included traditional fare -- tamales, "bread of the dead," hot chocolate and candy skulls.

"No matter where you are from, how old you are, or what you are studying or teaching at Duke, t exhibit can encourage all of us not only to reconnect with those who have gone before us, but also to widen our perspective on life and death and increase the respect we pay to each component," said Jenny Snead Williams, exhibit curator and executive director of the Program in Latino/a Studies in the Global South.

Williams took several of the photographs on display while in Oaxaca last fall.

Renowned Oaxacan weavers Eric and Janet Santiago Chavez each spoke in both Spanish and English about the traditional family altar, which the siblings built in honor of their late grandfather. The altar included photographs, images and figures of religious icons, food and candy skulls. Janet Santiago Chavez said setting up the family altar with food and marigold flowers is a multi-day process leading up to the celebration.

"We welcome the dead at 3 p.m. with fireworks," Chavez said. "At 3 p.m. the next day we all go back to the cemetery with the dead and bring food, drink beer, listen to music. It's a very happy time."

As is tradition, Duke visitors left pictures of their deceased loved ones at the altar.

Co-curator and professional photographer Bill Bamberger of Chapel Hill said the goal of the exhibit was to reflect the joy of the holiday.

"The photographs bear witness to the warmth and intimacy of these night-long gatherings," Bamberger said.

Second-year student Destiny Hemphill said the traditions embodied in the photographs have piqued her interest in the holiday.

"The little candy skulls represent eating death and making fun of it," Hemphill said. "It's interesting to me how people can use life to mock death."

For exhibit hours and to schedule a visit, contact Tracy Carhart at tracy.carhart@duke.edu, or Jenny Snead Williams at jennysw@duke.edu.