Zachari Logan: Remembrance

Disappearing Sky chalk pastel and graphite on blue paper.
Courtesy: Zachari Logan

The power of loss is a featured theme in a unique art exhibition, entitled “Zachari Logan: Remembrance.” The varied display of human drawings, decaying flowers and other artistic life-cycle representations was organized by the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. The celebration of the natural world in its changing forms of death and decay invites visitors to contemplate and meditate on the healing possibilities that grief may possess.

Zachari Logan: Remembrance features “Dead Flowers” to exemplify the beauty that natural decay can possess.
Courtesy: Zachari Logan

Zachari Logan is a visual artist from Canada, who explores the idea of beauty and mortality mainly through large-scale drawings and sculpture. Logan’s symbolic use of images that highlight decomposition aim to immerse visitors in the beauty of the process. The artist describes his intentions behind “Zachari Logan: Remembrance” in a recent artist conversation with the museum: “The exhibition brings together themes of mortality and interweaving of the body within the landscape.”

Dead flowers and curling leaves coiled in a colorful spectrum of wilted decay possess a certain unexpected, yet elegant charm. “Blooming Bones,” a pastel drawing of a human body in blue pencil and graphite represents a decaying human figure entwined with nature as it spawns new life. It conveys a sense of hope as butterflies ascend from the figure; a quiescent beauty aroused within the body’s aftermath. A fountain display of sculpted wilted flowers is continuously built upon by Logan as a symbol of piled bones that constantly change their appearance over time.

Canadian artist Zachari Logan commemorates the natural beauty of a complete life cycle of death and rebirth in his work, entitled “Blooming Bones.”
Courtesy: Zachari Logan

The use of natural representations of states of transformation in “Zachari Logan: Remembrance” remind us that the mutual breakdown of both landscape and humanity can be an unexpectedly beautiful one. And that perhaps death is not a definitive ending, but rather represents a vibrant beginning for potential life, new growth and hopeful renewal. Siddhartha Shah, PEM’s director of education and civic engagement, curator of South Asian art, and exhibition curator, admires the artist’s intentions. Shah states, “Zachari Logan invites us to dwell in their potent symbolism and to discover a mirrored cycle of death and rebirth that is within us all.”

There is also an opportunity for visitors to the museum, as well as online, to express heartfelt written messages for a departed loved one. Visit the museum’s Remembrance Guestbook to view those shared by others or add a note of your own if you wish.

Portrayals of life, death, love, and nature are often depicted in Logan’s creations. Current and upcoming exhibitions around the world can be found on the artist’s website.